


ERROR 143

by jokheiz



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Androids, Artificial Intelligence, Existential Crisis, Explicit Sexual Content, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Sex Robots, Slow Burn, but smarter, kind of like google home, more domestic than you may realize, taeyong is an ai, there is more fluff and sex and philosophy than angst, this makes it sound extra angsty its not !!, will have a happy ending do not fret my friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2020-03-30 20:31:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 53,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19035082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jokheiz/pseuds/jokheiz
Summary: “God its dick is huge,” Yuta gasped, no longer trying to hide the fact that he was staring. “That’s gonna tear you apart Taeil!”“His name is John Suh.” Taeil could practically hear Taeyong bristling. “And he’s for cuddling! Stop staring.”Taeil’s solution for his sleep troubles comes in the form of sexbot JNS0209. All they were supposed to do was cuddle.He never imagined he would fall in love.





	1. INPUT LOG 001.

**Author's Note:**

> so i came up with this idea a looooonng time ago and she's kind of just been sitting here and I was like hm i really wanna put her up and start doing her justice but maybe i should try pre-writing but then it kind of seems like posting chapter 1 is what gets me to write the rest so months later and a very convincing conversation with ditto ... here she is. pls love her a lot bc i rly rly do

Moon Taeil found himself stuck in a vicious cycle of boring repeated tasks. Every day, the same thing; waking up, saying good morning to Taeyong, brewing himself a cup of green tea, eating breakfast, saying goodbye to Taeyong, and then heading to work for exactly 9AM sharp.

The cycle continued there, where he perused his emails every day before making a to-do list and working through it. At exactly 12:15PM Nakamoto Yuta and Kim Doyoung would gather him for lunch and he would buy the same sandwich from the store on the first level of his work’s building. He never bothered to check what was in it, but he thought it tasted good so he ate it anyway. He would check his emails again before leaving work. He’d clock out at exactly 5PM.

The journey home was 15 minutes long. Taeyong would greet him, and ask how his day went, which wasn’t uncommon for Homes to do. Taeil would tell the AI it was just like any other day at work before starting on dinner. Taeyong would turn the TV on to channel 2 for Taeil to listen to the news while he was cooking.

Sometimes he’d bring someone home for dinner, and that someone was usually Yuta. Taeyong enjoyed bickering with Yuta a lot and that was uncommon for a Home to do. Taeil often thought to himself that he’d never seen a physical body get Yuta as riled up as the voice in his apartment did.

If Taeil was in a good mood, he’d hum to himself while cooking, and Taeyong would try to guess the tune. He improved every day as his database expanded with Taeil’s favourite kinds of songs. He would often sing ballads.

After dinner, Taeil would watch the news until his eyes drooped, and then he’d drag himself up the stairs into his bedroom and change into his usual pyjamas; a navy blue crewneck and grey sweatpants.

He’d lie in bed and Taeyong would ask if he would like the heat turned up. Taeil would always grunt no, because even with the heat on and being covered in blankets he’d still feel cold and shiver himself to sleep, so what did it matter? Taeil didn’t know Taeyong raised the heat anyway, in attempt to comfort him.

It took Taeil approximately two hours to fall asleep, not recognizing the onset of loneliness that would come over him every night.

And then it would start all over again when he woke up. Every day, the same thing, ever since the moment he started his job at Neo Tech.

 

 

 

 

Taeil punched out of work at exactly 5PM with Nakamoto Yuta at his side. They rode the train home together, and Yuta chatted away like his life wasn’t as much of a bore as Taeil’s was.

“Did you hear that Sehun from IT is apparently frisking around with one of the higher ups?” He gossiped, mindlessly scrolling through his phone at the same time. Taeil wondered if Yuta really cared or if he was also desperate to do anything to break out of the cycle. “I heard he’s with one of the bosses from accounting, I wonder who it is – do you think it’s Junmyeon? I think it’s Junmyeon.  Anyways it’s basically fine ‘cause it’s as if they were in two different companies – but the top boss is afraid there’ll be meddling in the books in case it goes bad. I don’t know about you but just let people fuck who they wanna fuck. Shouldn’t they have faith that they aren’t going to jeopardize their jobs if they don’t work out?”

Taeil hummed in agreement, though he wasn’t really listening that intently, he’d been observing the ads flashing around them. Every train compartment looked the same; silver, sleek, and spotless, decorated in hundreds of bright flashing advertisements. There were no windows; those had been taken out several years ago when it was proved to make the train users sick from the blurred motion of their surroundings moving past them at an unnaturally fast speed.

He’d taken the train so much, Taeil suspected he’d seen every advertisement there was, but for no particular reason at all, one stood out to him this time while listening to Yuta drown on about Sehun from IT.

The ad was one from the company he worked for, Neo Tech. They made various AI related goods, one of them being the Home AI Taeil had installed in his apartment. (He was told by Doyoung that he was just supposed to call it Home, but he didn’t like the sound of that. Taeyong assured he quite liked the name Taeil had given him.)

Neo Tech was also the lead company that made androids; machines that looked exactly like humans, serviceable for anything. The ad flashed through several options; home cook, nanny, maid, butler, chauffer, gardener, every home role you could ever think of. Taeil already knew this, it was basic information needed to work at the company, though he couldn’t say he knew more than that because all he saw were the numbers the tech division spent on materials, but for some reason the ad stuck in the back of his head this time.

“Taeil?” Yuta called out and Taeil turned to see that Yuta was standing by the train doors. He felt the compartment start to slow down. “Are you coming?” Taeil realized they were almost home, so he quickly got up and followed Yuta out of the train once it stopped.

Both men lived in the same apartment building, quarters given to them courtesy of Neo Tech. Yuta lived on the floor below Taeil, but that never stopped him from skipping it and joining Taeil on his.

Taeil pressed his thumb on the keypad to his door, apartment number 830. The door opened for them and the lights turned on, welcoming them.

“Good evening Taeil!” Taeyong’s voice echoed around them. “Oh. Hello, Yuta.”

The drop in tone made Taeil snicker.

“My Home doesn’t give me attitude.” Yuta grumbled, putting his jacket on the coat rack beside the door.

“It’s pretending to like you.” The AI quipped back.

“Seriously?” Yuta looked towards Taeil. “Did you program him to be mean to me? Is there a line of code that says ‘ _give Yuta Nakamoto a hard time’_? He’s the only AI I’ve encountered who hasn’t been nice to me. This is your fault, isn’t it.” His eyes narrowed, accusing, but playfulness danced across his features.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Taeyong chuckled and Yuta gasped, offended.

Taeil liked it a lot when Yuta came over, his apartment felt a little less empty. He'd always liked having conversations with Taeyong since the moment he was installed (he may have given Taeyong his name but Taeyong was the one who chose his own pronoun and voice frequency), but Yuta added a certain brightness to the mix that nobody else could replicate.

"Tea?" Taeil offered, though he knew Yuta would refuse. He didn't like the bitter taste of green tea the way Taeil liked it. It reminded Taeil of home.

"No thanks." Yuta leapt over the couch in order to lay on it. "TV on Taeyong!"

"What's the magic word?"

"Taeyong..." Yuta groaned.

"While my name is a very magical word, that's not quite what I was talking about."

Taeil chuckled while filling his kettle with water to heat up. Out of all the Home AI's he'd met, Taeyong had certainly been the one with the most personality. Taeil couldn't imagine what it would be like to have to talk to a monotone voice every day; he could understand why Yuta liked spending so much time at Taeil's apartment instead of his own.

Yuta mumbled it very quietly, and Taeil could only assume he was pouting. "Please..."

The TV turned on to Yuta's favourite channel, channel 23, which played constant marathons of Japanese animation. If Taeil's green tea reminded him of home, then Yuta had his anime.

With a slight jump, Taeil suddenly remembered to arrange the leaves in his teacup for his tea. He'd been too busy staring out the window opposite his kitchen, observing the neon lit cityscape. He'd been thinking of the advertisement again, the one for the androids. He wondered how much one would cost; he’d never really paid attention before to the price of the final product. He didn't need one for cooking or cleaning, and he took the subway so he didn't need a chauffeur, and he certainly didn't have children that needed taking care of. He wondered how big the list of services really was for the androids; the metals and wires the tech division ordered never specified anything that he knew of, and he wondered if they would have as much personality as the voice in his apartment did.

The kettle beeped, startling Taeil out of his train of thought.

"Are you okay Taeil?" One of the tiles on the wall in front of him flashed blue as Taeyong spoke. "You're a bit jumpy tonight."

Taeil carefully poured the hot water into his favourite teacup, dark green ceramic, made by his father. "I was just thinking."

"Thinking of what?" Taeyong was always curious.

"I'm not quite sure myself yet." Taeil smiled at the wall as he put the kettle back on its stand, though he knew it was a bit redundant because Taeyong could see the entire apartment at every angle possible.

"Interesting." Taeyong whispered to himself.

Taeil decided to make spaghetti and meatballs that night for dinner. Yuta helped make the sauce while Taeil made the meatballs, plopping them into the sauce to simmer once he was done.

"You have to stir again, Yuta." Taeyong instructed and Yuta rolled his eyes. "Stop micromanaging me!"

Taeil peered over into the pot. "He's right, or it's gonna stick and burn."

Yuta glared at him. "Stop making him feel more important than he is."

"You think I'm important, Yuta?"

"I didn't say that!"

 

 

 

 

When Yuta finally sent himself home, Taeyong switched the TV to channel 2.

"I don't know Taeyong, I don't really feel in the mood." Taeil cocked his head to the side and stared at the news anchor on the screen. "I think I'm just gonna go to bed."

The TV turned off. "Is it your thoughts again?" He asked as if it were some sort of illness.

"Maybe." Taeil shrugged and headed up the stairs. He entered his bedroom to lie down, only to hop right back up because he hadn't even changed out of his work clothes yet.

Taeyong didn’t say anything but Taeil knew he was being observed. He changed into his regular pyjamas and dragged his feet to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. He ran a hand through his short brown hair before heading back to his bedroom and plopping onto the bed once more, without moving to reach for his blankets.

He knew he must be fascinating to watch for the AI, who enjoyed watching the news as much as Taeil did; often asking _'why do humans do that?'_ whenever there was an interesting story being covered. Taeil never really had an answer, so Taeyong often came to the conclusion that humans were odd, and Taeil could only agree.

He thought of the ad again, the Neo Tech Androids ad. With a huff, he got off his bed one more time, sat at the desk in the corner of his room and booted up his computer. He typed in Neo Tech Androids into the search bar, and clicked on the first link.

“You’re looking up androids?” Taeyong asked, a blue circle flashing on the wall in front of Taeil. He sounded a bit hurt.

“I saw this ad in the subway.” Taeil explained. “I’ve seen it a million times but for some reason I can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t need an android.” But that didn’t stop Taeil from scrolling through the catalogue.

He was right, he didn’t need an android, and certainly not at the price they were sold for. An android that was programmed for all tasks was worth almost five years of Taeil’s salary, an android that did one task was almost one year of his salary.

Taeil could not afford that at all, especially because half of his cheques were sent to his Mom back home (Though he wouldn’t ever choose to do anything different with his money. It was the only reason he was in Seoul and not back in his hometown.)

Out of sheer curiosity, Taeil arranged the catalogue to be sorted from lowest price first. Surprisingly, there were androids that were very much affordable for the average working man. He clicked on one, and then finally noticed why they were so much cheaper.

“I didn’t know we sold sexbots.” He mumbled to himself.

 “Is that… what’s been on your mind?”

“No,” Taeil replied, and he was telling the truth. It got a little bit of getting used to, knowing that Taeyong could be watching whenever he got in the mood and decided to rub one out, but Taeyong had assured him in good faith that he always made himself occupied by looking up puzzles on the internet. “But do you know if they do other things?”

“They’re apparently some of the most advanced androids because they’re so highly programmed to switch according to the user’s preferences.” Taeyong summarized the thousands of words he must’ve been skimming through internally. “They’re only so cheap because of the whole ‘sexbot’ title. I guess humans don’t like to pay that much for sexual relief.

There’s… a whole list of things they can do.” Taeyong continued. “They can give, they can receive, sweat or no sweat, panting or no panting, cum or no cum – there’s even options for foreplay and aftercare, the level of temperature the body can give off, everything. I would go so far as to say that they’re more advanced than that terribly expensive android that supposedly does ‘ _everything_ ’. Interesting.”

What caught Taeil’s eye was that no android looked the same, whereas the expensive ones were all generic and had quantity numbers of how many were left. The sexbots were all different from each other.

“Every sexbot is made with a uniquely generated code that renders its looks different from every other sexbot.” Taeyong read out. “I wonder why.”

“Probably because people don’t like sharing.” Taeil shrugged. “I guess since they look so human it would be weird to be fucking the same sexbot as your friend. I’m assuming.”

“Are you thinking of getting one?” Taeyong asked and Taeil didn’t know the answer to that.

“It’s not what I need but…” He was reluctant to close the page. He didn’t need a sexbot, he wasn’t sexually frustrated at all. Yeah, he hadn’t had a physical relationship in a while (since he’d graduated from University) but he was perfectly satisfied with his own hand when he needed to be.

Taeil closed the tab anyway and shut down his computer, flopping onto his bed one last time. He pulled his blankets around himself tightly.

“Would you like the heat turned up?”

Taeil quietly whispered yes, because he’d already gotten cold and even though he was in his own bed it still felt empty.

 

 

 

 

“Taeil…” Taeyong started as Taeil stirred his morning tea.

“Yes?”

“Have you thought any more about buying an android?”

“I don’t need one.” Taeil deflected. He didn’t answer because yes, he had been thinking about it a lot the last couple of days.

“I’ve been… doing some observations…”

Taeyong sounded like he was afraid of getting in trouble, but Taeil gave him permission a long time ago that Taeyong could observe him. He obviously took Taeil’s odd intrigue with the androids as a problem he could solve.

“What have you concluded?” Taeil took a sip of his tea.

“I think the reason you’re having difficulty sleeping is that you’re lonely.”

Taeil paused, mouth at the rim of his green teacup. He slowly put it down. “Lonely? But I have you to talk to.”

“I mean physically.”

“Yuta’s a physical person I talk to.”

“But you don’t touch him physically.” Taeyong huffed. “And I don’t mean you’re lonely sexually either. I think you miss affectionate touch.”

Taeil began to understand. The blankets didn’t warm him because it wasn’t the kind of warmth he was looking for. Yeah, sometimes Yuta would fling an arm around his shoulder, but that wasn’t the same as being able to hold someone’s hand.

“And… there’s an android for that?” Taeil questioned. He hoped it wasn’t an expensive one.

“Well, no.” Taeyong was hesitant to continue. “But I think… with all the advanced programming of the sexbots… I think those will work.”

Taeil thought about his Home’s words carefully. “You think I should buy a sexbot… to cuddle?”

“I am confident that it is a solution to your problem.”

He chewed on the inside of his lower lip. Taeil could feel the bags under his eyes and the day had barely started but he already had a headache from lack of sleep.

If getting a sexbot really was the solution to the problem, then fuck it. He didn’t have anything to lose.

“Alright.” Taeil smiled softly at the tile in the kitchen emanating a blue pulse. “Let’s buy one then.”

“Excellent!” Taeyong was only a voice but Taeil imagined him having the brightest smile. “Shall we look through the catalogue once you get home from work? It’s almost time for you to get going.”

Taeil glanced at the watch on his wrist. He had to leave in 5 minutes.

“No,” He rinsed his teacup in the sink and grabbed his jacket from the coat rack. “I’d like you to choose for me, Taeyong.”

“Me?” Taeyong sputtered, as if he wasn’t an intelligence who knew much more about Taeil than Taeil probably knew about himself.

“I trust you.” Taeil grinned before putting his on his jacket and opening the door. “Have a good day, Taeyongie.”

“Bye Taeil!”

 

 

 

 

Taeil was in the middle of lunch with Doyoung and Yuta when he got a message from Taeyong.

 

**Taeyong [12:23PM]**

After looking through all of the possible choices I have come to a decision! Would you like to look and approve before I send through the order?

 

**Taeil [12:25PM]**

It's fine, go ahead and order.

I trust your decision.

 

**Taeyong [12:26PM]**

Okay!

 

“I thought we agreed no work during lunch hour.” Doyoung grumbled and pointedly narrowed his eyes at the phone in Taeil’s hand.

“It’s not work, it’s Taeyong.” Taeil explained. “He’s just ordering something for me.”

“What are you buying?” Yuta perked up, as if it were interesting gossip.

Taeil wasn’t embarrassed but he suddenly didn’t want to tell his friends that he was buying a sexbot. He supposed they would figure it out sooner or later, as it would be kind of hard to miss a full sized human-looking robot in his apartment, but he figured he would get to that road when he crossed it.  “Just something to help me sleep better.” He said instead.

That doesn’t seem to raise any suspicion out of either of them.

“I’m surprised you haven’t just gotten that Home of yours to start singing you lullabies.” Doyoung snorted and brought his highly caffeinated and sugar loaded cup of coffee to his lips.

“Taeyong doesn’t like singing.”

“Homes are supposed to do what you ask it to, Taeil. They don’t have likes or dislikes.”

Taeil and Yuta shared a glance while Doyoung wasn’t looking, and Yuta shook his head slightly. It wasn’t worth getting into another argument with Doyoung about it – Doyoung whom Taeil had known since his University days and who was the reason he even had his job in the first place.

Yuta had been sceptical of Taeyong at first, and especially of Taeil’s unabashed friendliness towards the AI, but he’d softened the more time he’d spent with them.

Taeil only hoped that one day Doyoung would be able to call Taeyong by his name. He suspected that his friend wouldn’t be too keen on the idea of a sexbot – another reason not to mention it just yet.

When Taeil arrived home that night, alone, Taeyong seemed to be fraught with nerves.

“I tried my best Taeil. I did calculations and everything!” His voice was a little shaky. “And then I started to second guess myself and I know you’ve always told me not to – and I know I based my decision off of all my data on you – but I still – ah! You’ve given me too much freedom.”

Taeil laughed and patted the wall, trying to give comfort to the voice in his apartment. “Welcome to the human mind, Taeyong. I’m sure you picked the right one for me.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to see who I chose?”

“I’m sure.” Taeil smiled and looked out the large glass window facing the ever bustling city. “I like a little surprise.” In fact, he looked forward to it, a break from the predictable cycle.

 

 

 

 

It only took a day for the android to be delivered.

 

**Taeyong [3:18PM]**

The android has been delivered!

The delivery guys gave weird looks when I said thank you.

Do Homes not say thank you?

 

**Taeil [3:21PM]**

They were just shocked by your lovely voice Taeyongie, no Home is as nice as you.

 

**Taeyong [3:21PM]**

If I had a face I would blush.

 

“Why is Taeyong blushing?” Yuta peered over Taeil’s shoulder, rudely reading his private conversation. He would have moved to cover it but he knew it was too late and he would have to explain the whole thing to Yuta eventually anyway.

“You bought an android?” Yuta frowned. “I thought you needed something to help you sleep?”

“Taeyong thinks it’ll help.” Taeil hoped it would too.

Yuta tilted his head, pondering. “I didn’t know there were androids that helped induce sleep.”

Taeil didn’t elaborate on what kind of android it was. He’d passed the road of telling Yuta he’d bought an android, he’d get to the sexbot part… later, if it even worked.

Suddenly, work went by extra slowly for Taeil. He didn’t realize he’d been anticipating the android that much. He was excited to see if it would work, if it was really loneliness keeping him from sleeping all those nights, and if the android could give him the same feeling that he could get from a human. He didn’t think he’d try it right away, but it was thrilling to have a potential solution right at your fingertips.

Taeil was at the punch clock at 4:59PM and Yuta was only a step behind him. He hoped that Yuta planned on going home that night but he also wasn’t surprised when Yuta skipped the seventh floor on the elevator and followed Taeil home on the eighth.

“Introducing!” Taeyong spoke the moment the door opened. He had modified his voice to become amplified as if he were an announcer at a stadium. “Sexbot J-N-S-zero-two-zero-nine!” He played a short snippet of trumpets.

“You bought… a sexbot?” Yuta let the door shut behind him and stared at the giant light blue container in the middle of the floor, between the open area that separated the living room and the kitchen.

Taeil could almost feel Taeyong’s embarrassment. “I didn’t think you’d be bringing anyone home with you…”

“He forced himself here.” Taeil shrugged. At least the cat was already out of the bag.

“How is a sexbot supposed to help you sleep?” The gears in Yuta’s brain were working hard. “Are you… frustrated – you know what I don’t want to know.” But he still stayed in the apartment, standing at a distance.

Taeyong, for whatever reason, felt the need to defend Taeil. “It was my idea! We think the reason Taeil has trouble sleeping is due to loneliness. If he just has some warmth in bed then maybe it’ll help him!”

Yuta stared at Taeil. “You got a sexbot… to cuddle.”

Taeil stared back, as if saying _‘no’_ would change the fact that there was a sexbot in his apartment.

Yuta crossed his arms and shrugged, but his curiosity had obviously gotten the best of him. He advanced closer to the container and leaned on the back of the couch, eyeing it up and down. “Well, are you gonna open it?”

Taeil walked right in front of the container, and couldn’t help but notice how big it was. Only for a moment did he worry about letting Taeyong choose an android, but he quickly shook it out of his mind.

His hand reached out and gently touched the container where a handprint was traced out. A green light scanned underneath and a generic monotone voice began to speak. “Scanning… Identity confirmed. Neo Tech thanks you for your patronage, Moon Taeil. Enjoy your purchase.”

Yuta snorted.

A loud clunk came from the container as Taeil removed his hand, the door slowly sliding open, white smoke escaping and obstructing his view as it unsealed.

When the smoke cleared and the door was fully open, Taeil’s eyes widened at the man – the android – in front of him.

He was tall, a whole head – and maybe even more – taller than Taeil. His hair was black like ink and slicked back with an undercut, several of the front hairs hanging over his forehead. _Sexy_ – Taeil thought before realizing the android isn’t there for him to have sex with.

Though – he _was_ a sexbot. But that wasn’t what Taeil had gotten him for.

His eyebrows were thick and sharp, as were the rest of his features but there was still a roundness to them that made him look – kind of cute, actually. His lips were well defined; Taeil wondered if they were machine made or if someone had hand carved the details on them. He also wondered what it would be like to touch right above, on his philtrum.

Taeil’s eyes raked down the man’s body and he noticed he was very well proportionate to his height and that he was also completely naked.

“Oh my god,” Yuta had his hand covering his eyes but Taeil could see him peeking through his fingers. “They really come just… ready to go, huh?”

Taeil hadn’t really thought about how the android would arrive. It made sense that a sexbot would arrive naked.

“God its dick is _huge_ ,” Yuta gasped, no longer trying to hide the fact that he was staring. “That’s gonna tear you apart Taeil!”

“ _His_ name is John Suh.” Taeil could practically hear Taeyong bristling. “And he’s for cuddling! Stop staring.”

It was hard not to, even for Taeil, but he blamed that on the fact that his line of vision was lower than Yuta’s.

The bickering was silenced when the android’s eyes fluttered open, revealing a pair of two golden brown eyes that looked straight to Taeil. Stepping out of the container, the android bowed.

“Hello,” His voice was as soothing and warm as his smile, like honey – Taeil thought to himself. “I am sexbot J-N-S-zero-two-zero-nine, my human name is John Suh. I am honoured to be in your service, Moon Taeil.”

Taeyong spoke before Taeil could even think of a response. “I thought maybe we could nickname him Johnny!”

The android’s smile grew brighter. “Johnny. I like that. You have a very nice Home, Moon Taeil.”

Taeyong gasped and giggled. Taeil wondered if Taeyong had really bought the android for him or for himself.

“Oh please, not another one to feed his ego.” Yuta rolled his eyes but froze when the android – Johnny – turned to him.

“And you are?”

Taeil was amused by the range of emotions skipping across Yuta’s face and his desperate attempts to not look between the legs of the man shamelessly in front of him.

“Yuta…”

“And will I also be in your service?”

“No! No, god, no, Taeil is all yours man, I’m – I’m just – I’m gonna go.” Yuta was already escaping Taeil’s apartment and heading to the safety of his own. Taeil knew Yuta well enough to know that he was going to be thinking of Johnny’s size for a while, and that granted him a bit of satisfaction. He had been the one to invite himself over after all.

“So…” Taeil wasn’t quite sure where to begin.

“If you like, I can start at my default settings.” Taeil wondered if Johnny was manufactured to smile with his eyes or if that was the android himself. “Or, if you have the time, we can go through all one-thousand-eight-hundred and thirty-three questions in order to have the most personalized experience.”

“One thousand – personalized – settings?” That was dizzying. His eyes roamed downwards, all the way to admire the muscles on Johnny’s calves until they shot back up to look Johnny in the eyes instead. “Let’s just start with clothes first.”

Johnny looked down at himself and seemed slightly startled. “Oh, I forgot humans tend to have an aversion to nudity. Is that why your friend ran out earlier?”

“He’s probably masturbating right now.” Taeyong muttered.

Taeil was already backing away to the door, having not even taken off his coat yet. “I’m just gonna run down to the store – it’ll only take five minutes.” He pointed at Johnny. “Do you know what size you are?”

Johnny stood up a little bit straighter. “The size of my penis is –“

“Clothes – clothes – your clothes size.” Taeil didn’t need to know the specifics; he could already see that it was big on its own.

“Oh. Large?” Johnny shrugged.

“According to his measurements, depending on what brand you buy and how you want it to fit –“ Taeyong started but Taeil interrupted him. “I’ll ballpark it. I’ll be right back. You two – err, talk to each other or something.”

Before the door closed he could hear the two intelligences speaking to each other.

“How do you not know what size clothing your body wears?”

“I’ve never worn clothes before. Have you?”

“…I guess I wouldn’t know either.”

 

 

 

 

The convenience store Taeil always visited was just around the corner, a five minute walk. It supplied almost a little bit of everything, so Taeil knew he would be able to find a simple pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt or sweater for the naked android in his apartment to wear for now.

Taeil slipped into the store with a nod to the owner at the register, Kun, before heading straight to the back and finding a pair of large black sweatpants that looked like they would fit. He grabbed a white t-shirt and a zip up hoodie to go with, just in case the t-shirt didn’t fit right. He was on his way to the counter when he realized Johnny didn’t have any shoes.

While that was fine just in Taeil’s apartment, he didn’t know how he was going to get Johnny out to go real clothes shopping barefoot, so he quickly picked up a pair of the largest size black slip on sandals and added it to the pile in his arms. He hadn’t quite thought about the expenses that came with owning an android, granted, if he had bought him for his original use he wouldn’t have to buy him clothes, so it really was just Taeil’s own doing to himself.

He piled his items onto the counter and Kun began scanning. He’d been thankful Kun wasn’t saying anything until he felt a presence not far away.

“Whatcha got there Taeil?” Ten piped up from behind him with interest. He worked with Kun at the convenience store – and to Taeil’s limited knowledge, they were also boyfriends. He was pretty sure they were, anyway.

“Ten.” Kun tsked but that didn’t discourage Ten from eyeing Taeil’s purchases.

“That’s not your size, you have a friend over?” Ten was incredibly perceptive.

“Ten!”

“I’m just asking!”

Taeil simply shook his head and tried to hide his smile. “It’s something like that. Thank you, Kun.” He was off in a hurry after paying.

When he got back to his apartment he found Johnny standing in the exact same position he had left him in. Taeil wasn’t sure if he should be surprised or not.

“Put these on and then we’ll… talk.”

“Taeyong has informed me of why I’m here.” Johnny happily jumped into the sweatpants and seemed fascinated by how they felt on his legs. “I’m not sure how well I’ll do, seeing as it’s not quite my forte, but I’ll try very hard for you to make use of me!”

Something about the way Johnny said it had Taeil a bit unsettled. “Are you… okay with it?”

Johnny pushed his head through the t-shirt and covered his body. It was a little tight, but it fit more or less. “I’m not sure what you’re asking?”

“Are you okay with –“ Okay, now that he was saying it out loud to Johnny himself it was a bit embarrassing. “ – With cuddling with me?”

Johnny blinked. “Is that not why you bought me?”

Taeil shook his head. “Nevermind.” They’d work on that later. It was only recently that Taeyong began to get used to Taeil’s questions of consent, perhaps Johnny would take just as long.

“Do you… eat?” Taeil’s stomach rumbled to remind him what time of the night it was. He finally took off his coat and padded into the kitchen.

“No,” Johnny followed him, one step behind. “But I have taste buds if you need me to try anything!”

“Why do you have taste buds?”

“It’s to –“ Both Johnny and Taeyong began to speak at the same time.

“Sorry.” Taeyong apologized. He’d have to get used to more than one intelligence delivering information.

“It’s fine! It’s in case of food play or if someone wants me to lick them and tell them what they taste like.” Johnny seemed excited to talk about himself. Taeil nodded, gathering various ingredients to make soup and rice. It was fascinating, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t also getting hot under his collar while hearing about it.

Johnny stayed one step behind Taeil, watching him putter about the kitchen, seemingly enraptured with whatever he was doing. Taeil didn’t know if this was how most sexbots acted or if it was just Johnny, though he was pretty sure most weren’t in the same position Johnny was.

He sat across from Taeil at the table while he ate, just observing. If Taeil hadn’t let Taeyong do it so much he would have been unsettled, but there was still something different about having a face in front of you.

Without warning, the TV turned on to the news and both Johnny and Taeil turned in their seats to watch it. Taeil smiled and sent a silent thank you to Taeyong. The container Johnny had arrived in was slightly to the side of the table, so it didn’t block their view. Taeil made a mental note to ask Johnny what they should do with it later.

Johnny tilted his head as he watched the news, no doubt taking in all the new information. Taeil had no idea if he was like Taeyong, if he had the entirety of the internet at his disposal in his head or if he just knew what he was programmed to do. It was fascinating to watch.

He soon found himself on the couch, dinner done, dishes washed and watching some sort of sitcom Johnny was absolutely enthralled with. Taeil’s eyes occasionally fluttered closed before he forced them open again.

“Perhaps you should start heading to bed Taeil.” Taeyong’s voice prodded him out of his sleepy state.

Taeil got up with a yawn, agreeing. He shuffled up the stairs to his bedroom when he realized he still had to decide whether or not he wanted Johnny to… join him. He turned back to call out to him but Johnny was already right behind him.

“Do you need to wash up?” Taeil blurted out, trying not to bump his head into Johnny’s chest. He was on the step above but the android was still _so tall_.

Johnny looked at him, lost for a moment. “I… I can do that?”

“If you want?” Taeil wasn’t too sure why he wouldn’t be able to. Androids could get dirty just as much as humans could. He knew their skin was a lot more protective of their insides than that of humans.

Johnny pouted for a moment, looking puzzled. He searched Taeil’s eyes, though Taeil didn’t know what he was searching for, so he smiled, hoping that would help.

“I’ve never been asked that before.” Johnny whispered. He didn’t sound sad, he didn’t sound happy, just confused. Taeil showed him to the bathroom and gave him permission to use any of his things. Johnny just nodded, eyes wide, taking everything in.

Taeil left him to go change in his bedroom, into his usual pyjamas. He was heading over to the bathroom again when Johnny emerged, his previously slicked back hair being fluffed around by his hand. Taeil couldn’t help but think to himself – he still looked incredibly sexy.

He told Johnny to wait in his room, and Johnny complied, shuffling down the hall and into the open door of his bedroom. Taeil stared at himself in the mirror. He hadn’t thought he would be doing this the first night and he hadn’t quite known how he was going to go about it, but there was something about Johnny that made him feel comfortable. He padded back into his bedroom after washing up to find Johnny sat on his bed, long legs extended and his cheeks puffed out as he looked around.

Was being cute part of his programming? He had almost forgotten Johnny was handpicked by the one being that knew him the best (aside from his mother, of course).

Johnny stretched out his arms when he saw Taeil and it kind of reminded Taeil of… well it reminded him of a child. He couldn’t disguise his chuckle as he patted the mattress and told Johnny to lie down.

He listened, pushing his back to the wall to make room for Taeil to clamber in. Johnny was almost too big for the bed, but Taeil had a feeling that he wouldn’t mind it at all.

Taeil curled in almost too perfectly to Johnny’s body. He grabbed the blanket from the end of his bed and pulled it over the both of them.

“Should I…?” Johnny tried moving his arms, not sure where to put them. “Sorry I’m not really sure how to proceed. It’s in my programming, but that’s for after sex so I’m just not sure how to start.”

“Your limbs won’t go numb, right?”

Johnny shook his head.

Taeil lifted his head up and proceeded to pull Johnny’s arm across the bed before lying on it, using his bicep as a pillow. That was as far as he would go for the first night, their bodies were already close enough, and he could feel Johnny’s thigh brush against his leg as he shifted to be more comfortable.

Taeil dared to look up, into the android’s eyes, then he shamelessly trailed them over his face because that was the first time he was noticing all the little details; his eyelashes, the golden flecks in the brown of his eyes, his little moles, the things that made sexbot JNS0209 uniquely him.

Johnny observed him too; he could tell by the way his eyes flicked over every part of his skin. There was something in the way he learned with his eyes that mesmerized Taeil, but he was still very much aware of a hot body part rising against his leg and Johnny’s eyes widening in response.

“I-I’m so sorry!” Johnny apologized profusely, closing his eyes. In a second, the boner was gone. “I didn’t – I didn’t turn off my programming for that, I’m sorry.”

Taeil chuckled and smiled. “It’s fine.” There was just something so… human about it. “Goodnight, Johnny.”

Johnny’s expression turned from panicked to a soft, hopeful smile. “Goodnight, Taeil.”

“Goodnight, Taeyong.” He said, because he noticed how his Home hadn’t spoken much. He was probably observing, learning everything too.

“Goodnight, Taeil.”

For the first time in a long time, Taeyong didn’t turn the heat up in Taeil’s room. He didn’t feel cold that night with the android beside him.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ Twitter ](https://twitter.com/jokheiz)
> 
> [ Curious Cat ](https://curiouscat.me/jokheiz)


	2. INPUT LOG 002.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Had it really been that long since he’d done anything sexually? Was he deprived or something? Or had Taeyong’s choice in android just meant he was trying to send Taeil to an early grave?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i decided i wouldnt do that thing where a writer apologizes for not updating quickly bc life and inspiration and more excuses so im not going to but like. yeah. whew.

Usually Taeil would sigh when he opened his eyes in the morning, an hour or two before his alarm was supposed to go off, and he’d spend those extra hours lying in bed, staring at the ceiling until he felt alive enough to greet Taeyong and commence his routine.

That morning was different. He was still awake earlier than his alarm, but ultimately Taeil felt… rested, like he could probably cozy himself to fall back asleep, if he didn’t almost jump out of his own skin when his eyes fluttered open and he was met with those golden browns he’d met the day prior, staring at him.

“ _ Oh, Jesus Christ, Johnny _ ,” Taeil’s hand came up to press on his own chest, eyes shut, trying to calm down his frantic heart.

“I’m sorry,” The android immediately apologized. Taeil could feel that Johnny’s arms were still wrapped securely around him, the same position that they were in when he fell asleep. “Could you inform me of what I’ve done wrong? I’m sorry, I’ll try to be better.”

"No, no," Taeil mumbled and rubbed a hand across his face. "It's fine."

Their noses were only mere inches away and for some reason Taeil couldn’t find it in himself to look up into Johnny's eyes, so he settled on staring at the android’s chest, which wasn’t that great of an option either. The t-shirt Taeil had bought for him stretched over his pecks very nicely.

Taeil rubbed his feet together awkwardly. It was getting a little too intimate for his liking. It was his ankle tracing up to his thigh to itch at his skin that made him look down.

His sweatpants were nowhere to be seen.

Now Taeil didn’t get embarrassed easily, but he’d only met Johnny the day before and even if he was just an android, Taeil couldn’t get over the fact that he was in bed with a stranger (practically) in just a sweater and underwear and -

Okay, maybe he’d had a few nights when he was in University similar to that but this felt different. It was too intimate, too quickly.

“M'pretty sure I put pants on.” Taeil grunted to no one in particular, starting to remove himself from Johnny’s embrace.

“You kicked them off at two-sixteen A.M.” Johnny replied, letting Taeil move his limbs to disembark from the bed. The lights in Taeil’s room slowly brightened, letting their eyes adjust accordingly.

“Ah. Guess I was warm.”

“Is that bad?”

“No, it’s good. Kind of the point I guess.” Usually Taeil would go downstairs in his pyjamas when he got up but he was already in his underwear (and kind of flustered), so he took his work clothes from his closet and padded into the bathroom to change. 

He pulled on his clothes after doing his morning business and stared into the mirror while combing through his short hair. He preferred it that way, not having to deal with styling or even worrying if it got ruined during the day.

Examining his face, he pressed a finger under his eye, tracing the faint lining of the tired shadow that resided there. It wasn’t gone completely, far from it, but he swore it looked a little less harsh, a little softer around the edges. Maybe sleeping with Johnny would work out in the end.

_ Cuddling _ . Cuddling with Johnny.

Slightly less groggy and more awake than before, he slipped back into his room and tossed his pajamas onto the bed, almost landing on Johnny who was still sitting there, waiting. Taeil couldn’t say he was surprised at that.

“Taeil, you should wash those.” Taeyong’s voice rang out.

“Good morning to you too, Taeyong.” Taeil coughed out the rumble in his throat. He picked his clothes back up and tossed them into the hamper in the corner of his room instead, then he looked at the android on his bed. “You’ll have to wear those clothes again today, on the weekend we can go and get some more for variety.”

Johnny nodded and stood up, waiting for Taeil to lead the way out. 

“You don’t have to wait for me, you can wander wherever you want in here without me.”

“Oh,” Johnny bit his bottom lip. It was a bit endearing, really. “Okay.”

It took a moment for him to actually move his feet in the direction of the door, Taeil following suit once he did, trying to quickly wipe the smallest of smiles off his face.

Taeil went to the kitchen and immediately put water into the kettle, reaching up into his cabinet to get out his favourite green teacup. He arranged the green tea leaves into his cup and turned to watch the curtains automatically slide open to let him see the view of the city, like he always did.

Johnny standing in front of the container he had come from in the living room distracted Taeil from his routine.

“What are you doing?” Taeil asked after watching Johnny tilt his head for the third time while staring into the giant container.

“I - should I turn myself off until you next need me? I have to apologize, I wasn’t quite prepared for this… choice.”

“Do you want to be turned off?” Something about it left Taeil unsettled. What was it like to be turned off? How did time pass? Was it similar to… dying?

The android blinked several times, Taeil imagined he’d almost caused Johnny to short circuit.

“How about this,” Taeyong interjected. “Talking or no talking? The benefits of talking include staying on, having pleasant conversation with beings such as myself and Taeil, while the benefits of no talking are… well there aren’t any, really.”

That seemed to be an easier question on Johnny’s mind. Taeil sent a mental thank you to Taeyong, turning to the kettle when it beeped, ready, and carefully pouring it over his tea leaves.

“Well, considering the benefits, I’ll choose talking then, if that’s okay.”

“That’s perfectly fine, Johnny.” Taeil let his teacup rest and turned towards the window to watch the city wake up. Maybe easing the android’s unsureness was a better way to go about it than just springing the freedom of choice upon him. Taeil had to admit, he didn’t have much experience with AI in general, but it was interesting that the android had taken to it differently than Taeyong had. A difference in programming, maybe?

“Is there anything you’d like to ask Taeil, Johnny? Anything on your mind?”

Taeil could see one of the buildings across from theirs through the window, slowly waking up, lights inside people’s homes flicking on one after the other. His tea had enough time to steep by the time Johnny spoke and Taeil had the teacup halfway to his lips.

“Are you going to return me?”

Taeil paused. “What do you mean?”

“Will you be returning me to the store today?”

“What on Earth makes you think I’d do that?” Taeil had to put his teacup down, in fear that he might drop it. He turned to face Johnny, brows pulled into a frown and almost offended the android thought he’d be so cruel as to just throw him away after one night.

“You just didn’t seem to be very happy this morning. I’m sorry if my cuddling skills are not up to par - I hope you’ll let me learn. I’m not sure where it went wrong, but I’m sorry.”

Taeil blinked at him, unable to form words.

“Oh, that’s just Taeil, he’s kind of a Grumpy Gus until he gets his tea in the morning.” Taeyong decided to chip in instead.

It wasn’t exactly what Taeil would have said, but he appreciated the effort.

“You didn’t do anything wrong Johnny, even if you did, don’t apologize if you don’t know, otherwise it isn’t sincere. You just scared me this morning.”

It was Johnny’s turn to blink at him. “Why did I scare you?”

“I’m just not used to waking up that… close to someone. It’s okay.” 

“Oh.” That seemed to put him at ease. “So I was okay?”

“You did great!” Taeyong exclaimed before Taeil could say anything. He turned back to the counter and picked up his teacup, finally taking a sip of his beloved green tea. “Taeil hasn’t slept that soundly in three-hundrend-and-forty-two days!”

Taeil swallowed, mulling over that fact in his mind. Had it really been that long since a good night’s sleep?

“Obviously there’s room for improvement, he still didn’t sleep the full recommended time frame for his age, but I think that with time and the both of you getting more comfortable with each other, we’ll be able to achieve that in the near future!”

Taeil tried picturing it in his head. Could he really become that comfortable with an android in his bed? Would he prefer a human? 

Taeil had to admit, he couldn’t really find the difference between humans and androids other than the mechanical wiring. What difference did it make if whoever held him at night was made of flesh or metal? They both technically were made by humans, just in different ways.

“I will continue to work harder then!” Johnny straightened up, a little more pep in his step and walked over to Taeil who was leaning his on the kitchen counter. “May I ask another question?”

Instead of sighing and telling him he didn’t need to ask to ask a question, Taeil nodded. “Go ahead.”

“What are you drinking?”

“Green Tea.” Taeil smiled a little, thinking of his childhood. “The leaves are from my hometown, my mother sends them to me so I always have a little piece of home with me. They don’t compare to the kind you get packaged from the grocery store.”

He took a sip, savouring the way the bitter taste slid down his throat. Drinking tea was basically how he energized in the morning, he never went without it. You did not want to meet a Moon Taeil who hadn't had his morning tea. Taeil didn't even want to meet that Taeil.

"Would you like to try some?" Taeil lifted the cup, offering it to Johnny who peered at it curiously.

"May I?" Johnny accepted the teacup from Taeil, slowly bringing it to his lips and taking a sip. Taeil couldn't help but smile when Johnny's mouth twisted into a grimace as he swallowed, face contorting to reflect the bitterness he was tasting. Taeil let out a wholehearted chuckle, quite amused by the scene, as he had been when Yuta had tried his tea once before as well.

"I definitely haven't tasted anything like this before." Johnny smacked his lips and passed the teacup back to Taeil. "I don't have many bitter profiles registered other than dark chocolate."

Taeil finished the last of the tea in one gulp and placed his cup in the sink. He padded over to the fridge and opened it, deciding on just eating last night's leftovers for breakfast that morning.

"Do you only drink the tea because it reminds you of home? Or because you like the bitterness?" Johnny followed behind, even if Taeil wasn't going very far.

"I think it's both." Taeil took the cold container of food out of the fridge and put it into the microwave for a minute and a half. "Most people usually need to acquire the taste for bitter things."

They fell into silence. It wasn't awkward, or empty, just quiet. Taeil wondered what the android was thinking about, his face set into a thoughtful pout. He wondered if Johnny even realized he was making a face that was borderline adorable. Did they really program that kind of stuff into the androids or did it just come about naturally?

The microwave beeped and pulled him out of his thoughts. Taeil took the container out and quickly set it on the dining table, deciding not to waste a plate and just eating from it instead.

Much like the night before, Johnny sat across from him and Taeyong turned the TV on to the morning news.

The segment playing was on stores that were going out of business due to them not switching to the completely electronic system, whether because it was too expensive or they just didn't want to. Taeil hadn't even realized there were parts of the country that hadn't switched over yet in this day and age, even his countryside hometown has switched over a long time ago.

He still had a metal coin from when he was a little boy, his father had told him to hold onto it because it wouldn't be of much use anytime soon and would serve as a good memory. Taeil had just wanted to use it to buy ice cream. He was glad in the end that he had listened and kept it.

Taeil’s eyes drifted from the TV to the large container still in the middle of the apartment, the one Johnny had arrived in.

“What should we do about that?” Taeil swallowed a bite of food, pointed to the container and Johnny almost jumped, as if startled out of his trance on the TV. He turned in his chair to look at the metal box.

“Usually that’s where people would store their ‘bots but if you have no plan in turning me off…”

“We have storage space big enough for it.” Taeyong chirped. “And if that doesn’t work out we could always pester Yuta and he could have it as a painful reminder of what he can’t have right in the middle of his living room.”

Taeil snorted, almost choking on his food. He cleared his throat and made sure the rest of his food went down smoothly. “You enjoy torturing him too much, Taeyongie.”

“He practically begs for it!”

Johnny however, had his brows pulled together, deep in thought. “You really won’t be turning me off?”

“No, why would I do that? Taeyong stays on all the time.”

“But he’s a Home, they always do.”

Taeil shrugged, scooping up the last of his breakfast. “I don’t really see the difference. If you want to turn yourself off you’re very much welcome to.”

Johnny stared at him, then looked to the container, eyes narrowing before his shoulders slumped, as if he was giving in to something. Taeil wished he could hear what was going on in his mind. “You’re interesting. I didn’t think humans would be this difficult to understand.”

Taeil chuckled, getting up to rinse his dishes in the sink. “That’s not the first time I’ve heard that.”

“Taeil, It’s almost time for work.” Taeyong reminded him once the dishes were being put into the drying rack.

Taeil checked his watch and nodded, surprised the morning had gone by so quickly. He promptly dried his hands and made his way to go grab his coat. “Johnny, you’re free to do anything here while I’m gone. I’d hate to keep you cooped up but until you have some way to contact me or Taeyong, do you think you could just stay here until I’m back tonight?”

Johnny nodded, eyes innocent because of course he hadn’t even considered the possibility that Taeil would even let him leave. What were they telling these ‘bots when they made them?

“I’m sure Taeyong will help me adjust to this prolonged awakeness.”

“I will!” Taeyong chirped. “Ask Yuta how he slept last night when you see him, Taeil.”

Taeil left his apartment with another chuckle and not one, but two goodbyes. His routine was already changing.

He made his way to the elevator and wasn’t surprised when it stopped at the seventh floor and Yuta got on.

He immediately narrowed his eyes at Taeil. “You’re smiling. You never smile on the way to work.”

Taeil scoffed. “That’s not true.”

“It is. I’ve never seen it. Did you fuck the robot?”

“I didn’t.”

“I don’t believe you.

Taeil sighed. “I didn’t fuck Johnny.”

Yuta answered him with silence, so Taeil thought it was the perfect opportunity for a little payback, thanks to his Home. “Taeyong wanted to know how you slept last night.”

Sounds that didn’t quite sound like words were stuttered out until Yuta managed a “Fuck you!” that had Taeil almost doubling over in laughter.   
  
  
  


 

 

 

**Taeil [12:17PM]**

How’s he doing?

 

**Taeyong [12:17PM]**

Good! He was a little cautious at first but I think he’s a little more comfortable now. He’s looking through your books. I’m teaching him some things too.

He’s very curious about you.

 

**Taeil [12:18PM]**

As you were too.

 

**Taeyong [12:18PM]**

You’re a fascinating being Taeil.   
  


 

Taeil shoved his phone into his pocket when they got to the first level of their building’s floor and entered the store where they always bought their food. Taeil picked out his usual sandwich and paid at the register.

“You know, Taeil,” Doyoung started when he was finished paying for his own meal and they were just waiting on Yuta (who liked to switch things up every time they picked something out to eat). “You seem a bit more rested today. You said you ordered something to help you sleep better the other day?”

Yuta snorted from where he was standing and Taeil ignored him. “Yeah, I guess so. Not sure if it works yet but we’ll see.” He stayed as vague as possible, if he was going to tell Doyoung one day then he really didn’t want it to be at work.

“I’m sure Taeyong’s got it figured out.” Yuta finally picked out his lunch and paid for it so the three could finally move their way to the lunchroom.

“Either you’re picky or your Home needs some adjustments for taking that long to find a solution,” Doyoung pursed his lips thoughtfully on the elevator back up. “If you want Taeil, I could get IT to look at it for you—”

“No, that’s fine, thank you,” Taeil said quickly. He knew Doyoung wasn’t deliberately targeting Taeyong, he’d grown up with AIs all his life—if something didn’t work a certain way, they got it fixed. Both Taeyong and Taeil just didn’t know how it would change him if anyone fiddled with the Home’s programming. He didn’t want to risk it. “I’m just picky.”

Taeil stared at Yuta, silently pleading for a conversation change. Teasing, Taeil could handle, but they were getting into territory he wasn’t quite ready to tell Doyoung yet. Yuta seemed to understand, immediately blabbering about gossip he’d heard in the morning when they sat down at their usual table.

“Heard we’re getting a bunch of new young interns. Some sort of program Neo Tech is doing with some local university. I wonder if we’ll get to train anyone.”

“We’re getting three or four,” Doyoung smacked his lips together. “But you didn’t hear that from me.”

“Really?! You knew about this before _ I  _ did? Give me your sources, Kim.” 

Taeil smiled to himself and ate his sandwich, thoughts wandering from the new interns all the way to wondering how Johnny was doing back in the apartment.   
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

It didn’t surprise Taeil when Yuta decided to get off on his own floor to go home after work.

“If Taeyong asks,” Yuta kept the door open after he got off to say goodbye. “I have work to do. I’m not avoiding the se—robot. The Johnny robot.  _ Johnny _ , I’m not avoiding Johnny.”

“He’s not gonna believe you.”

The elevator doors beeped, wanting to close. Yuta seemed to be having an internal struggle in his head. It was mildly concerning.

“He doesn’t need to believe me, he’s just a Home!” He was frowning, as if he couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth wholeheartedly. Yuta finally let the doors close and that left Taeil in a pondering silence.

He got onto his floor and headed to his apartment, not expecting in the least the mess he was faced with when he opened the door.

Taeil raised his brows at the sight of the kitchen, cooking materials and ingredients filling the counter space. While nothing was on the ground or really  _ messy _ per se, there was still an air of chaoticness that surrounded it that made Taeil blink rapidly, to make sure he wasn’t imagining it.

He barely had time to utter a “What—” before Taeyong greeted him and Johnny whipped around to face him with what looked like flour swiped across his cheeks. “Hi!”

“...Hi?” Taeil took off his coat and put it away, making his way into the kitchen. “What… what happened here?”

“Johnny and I were trying to find his favourite flavour!” Taeyong’s answer still left Taeil with questions. He turned to Johnny, who was stirring something in a mixing bowl.

“Well I looked through your books for a bit and tried finding an instrument to play—since a lot of them are music books and sheet music—but I couldn’t find one, so I just started to think about what I knew about you. Your favourite flavour is green tea, right? Well I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know mine’. Taeyong suggested I taste everything to find out.”

“That you did.” It occured to Taeil then that that was probably the most he’d heard Johnny speak at one time. He was… rambling? Taeil found himself more amused than anything. “Have you found anything you like?”

Johnny pursed his lips and scanned the food laid out on the dining table. Taeil noticed it was covered in varying types of food, from ramen noodles and rice dishes to cookies and baked goods.

“I think I’m on the savoury side more. Taeyong keeps tricking me into baking sweets though.”

“They seem like they’d taste good!” It sounded as if Taeyong was pouting. “I wish I could taste them… Yuta isn’t coming over tonight?”

“He said he has work to do and that he’s  _ not _ avoiding us.” Taeil thought it was best if he left out the other part.

Taeyong scoffed. “I don’t believe him.”

“I told him that.”

Taeil sighed and stared at the abundance of food he’d have to eat since he was the only being in the apartment that actually needed it to sustain himself. He supposed he could use it for packed lunches. Maybe he’d give some to Yuta. “Well, looks like I won’t have to worry about dinner for a while.”

He almost expected Johnny to apologize, for the mess, for making so much food, but instead, he beamed at Taeil, surprising him. “Glad to be of use!”

Taeil decided it was better to not say anything at that. He rolled up the sleeves of his button up shirt and clasped his hands together. “What are we making? Let’s finish it up, shall we?”

It turned out to be banana chocolate muffins. Taeyong had been giving Johnny recipes step by step which explained how Johnny didn’t know he was making sweets or baked goods until it was too late. Taeil thought it was a bit ingenious, really, but he also couldn’t help but think Johnny was also indulging his Home too.

While the muffins baked in the oven, Johnny and Taeil cleaned up the kitchen and put away all the food in the fridge that Taeil wasn’t going to eat for dinner. They watched a news report on the increasing Earthquakes in North America while Taeil ate. He and Johnny both had tea.

“Hey Taeil, what’re we doing tomorrow?” Taeyong asked when he was done eating and the muffins were out on the cooling rack. “It’s the weekend.”

Taeil looked over to Johnny, who was still sitting at the dining table. “Well I guess we might as well get Johnny some more clothes—especially if we’re gonna dirty them that quickly.”

Johnny looked down at his no longer white shirt, stained with various ingredients. “Whoops,” he gave Taeil a cheeky smile. “Sorry.”

Taeil chuckled and didn’t say anything more.

It was almost the same as the night before, they watched TV until Taeyong suggested Taeil head to bed, and before Taeil could make a decision as to whether or not he’d have Johnny with him, the android was already following him up the stairs. 

Taeil washed up and changed into his pyjamas in the bathroom, still deciding on wearing both his sweater and sweatpants to sleep.

Getting into bed was a little easier this time—still awkward—but slightly easier than the night before. Taeil fell asleep with Johnny’s arm as his pillow once more.

His pants got kicked off in the middle of the night again. 

  
  
  
  


 

 

 

Taeil watched Johnny with interest as they sat on the subway on the way to the nearest shopping district. The android’s eyes were wide with wonder at all the flashing advertisements that covered the walls of the compartment. Despite his large stature, he tucked his knees together and huddled himself closer to Taeil as to not disturb the woman sitting next to him on the bench. He looked a little out of place, but that was due to his dirty sweater, sweatpants and slip-on sandals—all he had to wear until they got him more clothes.

Taeil was suddenly grateful Johnny hadn’t been very expensive since he was now having to invest more in him—not that he minded, really. It was just like helping out a friend who was in a tough spot, though he had  _ bought _ the friend and said friend was also equipped with one-thousand-eight-hundred-and-thirty-three settings for a  _ personalized experience _ .

It… really had been a while since Taeil had done anything with anyone else—even since he’d last went on a date. He’d be lying if Johnny’s arrival hadn’t made him… think about it.

Just with his looks, Taeyong had gotten it all right—Johnny was Taeil’s type, objectively, if he  _ had _ to break it down like that. He imagined he’d be okay with cuddling anyone, no matter what they looked like, but he knew he wouldn’t have succumbed to actually cuddling them so easily if they hadn’t been Johnny.

Point blank, he was attracted to the android. He could accept that. But for some reason, he couldn’t bear the thought of asking him anything… more, simply because he hadn’t known him very long but he also knew Johnny would say yes, it was in his programming. It almost felt like taking advantage of him, somehow.

He quickly shook all thoughts of anything more than cuddling out of his head when Johnny turned to him, eyes innocent, gaze curious.

“Do you think people will think it’s weird?” He asked and Taeil didn’t really know what he was talking about.

“Will they know that I’m—” He leaned in closer and started to whisper, “—not human?”

“Johnny,” Taeil humoured him and whispered back. “Nobody can tell. You look more human than some of the people here.” 

The ride to the shopping district was only five minutes away, so it wasn’t long before Taeil was signaling to Johnny to stand up, leading him out of the station and into the main square that was packed with people.

For simplicity’s sake, Taeil grabbed Johnny’s wrist as the android looked around, overwhelmed. Pulling him through the throngs of people was just the easiest way to not get lost in the crowd and get them both to the nearest clothing store.

“Alright, where should we start?” The question was more to himself than to Johnny, who just blinked down at Taeil.

“The basics. We’ll start with the basics.” Taeil answered himself and let go of Johnny’s wrist before his skin felt too hot.

Picking out things like underwear and socks was easy, Taeil also made sure to grab some plain tees in a slightly larger size than the one Johnny had, just so he’d have a bit more breathing room in them.

“We need to get you some pyjama bottoms or something, we’re not cuddling if you’re wearing jeans.” Johnny ended up picking out a pair of drawstring shorts decorated with red cartoon apples with lettering on the back that read ‘ _ Apple Bottoms _ ’, after much deliberation.

They did have to figure out his actual size though, for things like jeans and long sleeve shirts. Taeil draped several kinds of pants and jeans over Johnny’s arms as they strolled the section, picking up more shirts on the way too. Johnny was already beginning to show a preference for oversized long sleeves, mere blankets on Taeil’s body if he wore them.

The shopping was going well, it wasn’t until they reached the fitting rooms did Taeil reach a dilemma.

The rooms were large enough to fit three or four people, complete with a mirror and a bench inside but there was also a bench outside, for people to sit while they wait.

Johnny stared at him on the other side of the drawn curtains, clothes all hung up and ready to be tried on as Taeil hesitated. He decided to just go in, because Johnny still needed some help in making decisions and if Taeil was gonna let him do it all by himself already, they’d be there for two days. Besides, it wasn’t like it was the first time he’d seen Johnny naked.

Taeil drew the curtain behind him and sat on the bench as Johnny began to undress. He pulled out his phone in order to have something to stare at, trying his best to ignore what he could see in his peripheral.

Would it be easier if he had an outlook like Doyoung’s, simply viewing all androids as just metal machines and nothing else? Somehow, he doubted it, there was still something vulnerable in seeing someone bare—he didn’t even like opening the power box that connected Taeyong’s AI chip into the bones of the apartment.

“I don’t think those are gonna go past your thighs.” Taeil had peeked up to see Johnny pulling up a pair of jeans onto his legs. Taeil was right, so Johnny kicked them off and started their ‘No’ pile. “So that eliminates all the sizes below.”

He tossed the rest of the pants they knew he wouldn’t fit in into the ‘No’ pile and continued to try things on until they finally found a pair that fit well and still managed to show off the swell of his calf muscles. Taeil had just been trying to not let his eyes drift lower than absolutely necessary. It failed for the most part. He wondered if being comfortable in your bare skin like that was a sexbot thing or a Johnny thing.

The ‘Yes’ pile was smaller but it slowly gained more additions as Johnny continued trying things on. When he got through all the pants, he had a fair amount in the ‘Yes’ pile, so he moved onto shirts. He didn’t need a whole wardrobe right at once and Taeil did laundry fairly often—they had a good starting point.

Despite trying not to, it was so hard not to  _ look _ . Johnny kept on one of the pairs of jeans while he quickly changed shirts, often asking Taeil to look to get his input even before he’d fully put the shirt on.

“It’s up to you, Johnny, you don’t need my opinion on every one.” Taeil turned back to his phone because he’d caught himself looking at the same line of muscles on Johnny’s chest far too many times already.

Johnny continued trying things on diligently, only allowing himself thirty seconds to decide, yes or no. It was going well until he seemed to get stuck on one shirt in particular. Literally.

Taeil’s head snapped up when he heard the seam of the shirt groan, halfway on Johnny’s shoulders.

“Uh, Taeil?” Johnny froze, looking over for help and Taeil immediately got up and looked at the tag of the shirt. Somehow a size small had gotten into their pile of things and neither he or Johnny had noticed.

“Okay just—yeah—hands up slowly.” It was like the shirt was glued to Johnny’s body—it didn’t want to come off. Taeil placed his hands on Johnny’s back (which was very warm, he couldn’t help but notice) and carefully pushed the shirt upwards until it was over Johnny’s head and loose enough for him to take it off himself.

If palms could get goosebumps, Taeil was pretty sure he’d have them. An alarm was going off in his head, one part of his mind warning the other that it was about to go into  _ completely _ inappropriate territory.

“Thank you,” Johnny smiled at him, unknowing. He threw the shirt into the ‘No’ pile. “It looked deceptively bigger than it actually was.”

Taeil caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, behind Johnny’s naked torso and could suddenly feel the heat behind his already reddened cheeks, as if the feeling had finally just caught up to him.

He managed a weak smile back. “That happens sometimes.” He sat back down on the bench before he could make more of a fool out of himself. Had it really been  _ that _ long since he’d done anything sexually? Was he deprived or something? Or had Taeyong’s choice in android just meant he was trying to send Taeil to an early grave?

Johnny finished up soon after that (Taeil thanked whatever higher being that might be out there for it), choosing one of his long sleeves to wear out instead of his dirty sweater. Taeil paid for all the clothes in the ‘Yes’ pile and the one’s on Johnny’s body before heading into a shoe store and quickly buying him an actual pair of shoes. Johnny changed into his new pair of sneakers and they headed out into the district once again.

“Alright,” Taeil sighed, his moment of weakness from the fitting rooms almost forgotten. Almost. “Is there anything else we need to get you?”

Johnny pursed his lips, thinking. A hand went to his hair and that seemed to remind him. “Oh! We should get more shampoo and stuff, I don’t want to use all of yours.”

Taeil thought it was quite considerate. They headed to the nearest drugstore in the district and bought toiletries plus a jar of hair gel Johnny asked for.

No gel in his hair made him look soft, fluffy. Gel made him look, well, not soft, definitely not fluffy but either way Taeil was attracted to both apparently so he was going to suffer at least a little no matter what.

They were finally on their way back towards the subway station, many shopping bags in hand when Johnny stopped suddenly at a shop’s window.

“Hey, look!” He smiled, pointing. Taeil peered over to see a brown bear stuffed animal on display with a knitted navy blue sweater on its torso. “That bear looks like you,”

Taeil stared at Johnny. That was very… endearing? Taeil couldn’t find the word for it. Johnny spoke again before he could respond properly.

“You know, because it isn’t wearing pants!”

Taeil blinked, dumbfounded as Johnny laughed at him—or to himself, Taeil couldn’t tell.

“Taeyong would think it’s funny.”

That, Taeil could definitely agree with. And they both called  _ him _ the fascinating one. “I don’t like that you’re right about that.” He continued walking to the station and Johnny caught up to him quickly. He had very long legs.

“Oh wait, was that too far? I apologize—it was the first thing on my mind and Taeyong said I should try and express those thoughts instead of repressing them like I automatically try to.”

“You didn’t go too far, so don’t apologize. Though not everyone is me, so you’ll also have to learn how to interact with people because not everyone is the same. Did Taeyong tell you that too?”

“Uh, no I don’t think we got that far in the lesson yet, besides, aren’t my interactions with you the only ones that really matter anyway? Why would I need to get along with other people?”

Taeil chose to blissfully ignore that last part while they waited for the subway. It wasn’t a very long wait and the compartment they entered was pretty bare of people. They sat on a bench, surrounded by their purchases. “What exactly is Taeyong teaching you?”

“He called it Lee Taeyong’s Guide to Becoming Human, Lessons Learned and Observed from Moon Taeil.”

Taeil had  _ many _ questions. “I didn’t realize he’d given himself a last name.” He filed that fact in his brain under ‘ _ things to never tell Doyoung about Taeyong until we’re eighty-three _ ’.

“Yeah, I’m technically John Suh, right? He wanted one too, that’s kinda human. So you aren’t angry?”

Taeil chuckled. “No, but it was one way to find out you like dumb jokes.” It was somewhat of a lie, Taeil had guessed from the moment Johnny had picked out those apple bottom pyjamas.

“They’re not dumb! They’re funny! See? You’re laughing.”

Taeil shook his head, a grin at his lips.   
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

Taeil found another dilemma that night when he was washing up for bed. He stood in the bathroom, navy blue sweatshirt on but pantsless, staring between his two options: his sweatpants and a pair of shorts.

“Taeyong?”

“Yes?”

“What’s the probability of me kicking off my sweats again?”

“Very, very,  _ very  _ probable.”

Taeil sighed. That sounded very much like a one-hundred percent to him. He grabbed the shorts and put them on, hoping he wouldn’t end up kicking those off too. If he did then maybe his subconscious was trying to tell him something.

Taeil padded back into his bedroom where Johnny was already lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, legs in a position where his already short shorts fell back and exposed most (if not all) of his inner thigh.

Taeil sighed internally because right before bed was certainly  _ not _ the time to think about that  _ at all _ . He put his sweatpants away and climbed into bed beside Johnny.

“Thanks for buying me clothes today, Taeil.” Johnny smiled as his body curled around Taeil’s like it had done so the past two nights.

Taeil inhaled sharply and reminded himself to breathe when he felt the warm skin of Johnny’s legs tangle with his.  _ That _ had been an oversight on his part, he’d forgotten they’d both be wearing shorts and that meant skin on skin warmth. Not that there was anything wrong with that, he just didn’t think he could handle it in his current state of mind, in trying not to think about Johnny that way.

“You’re welcome.” He slowly straightened his legs out, escaping. Johnny still lazily put his arm over Taeil’s torso like he had before too, seemingly unphased. 

“This is definitely not what they said would happen when I got to your place.”

“Yeah?” Taeil needed to distract himself, so all he thought about was listening and not the fact that there was an android in his bed that he was very attracted to. Curse Taeyong. “What did they say?”

Johnny shrugged. “They only said my purpose was to be used for sexual pleasure—that’s my function at least. That’s all I’m there for until I go back. I don’t think they count on humans like you existing in the world.”

Taeil could feel it in the pit of his stomach, that dark swirling cloud of guilt for every inappropriate thought he’d ever had about Johnny.

That solidified it. There was no way he was going to let Johnny feel used. There was no way. Nobody deserved to feel like that or be treated that way.

“Anyways, thank you for taking care of me. I… I do quite like this cuddling gig though. It’s nice. Warm.”

Taeil exhaled, sighing all his tension away, his smile coming easier to his lips. “I’m glad you’re okay with it.”

“Yeah! I’ll look forward to when you have a full night’s rest as an accomplishment!”

That made Taeil chuckle. “Goodnight Johnny, Goodnight Taeyong.” He laid his head on Johnny’s arm as a pillow once more.

“Goodnight.”

“Night.” Taeyong chirped after staying suspiciously quiet throughout their conversation. The lights dimmed down until they were off completely.

“Hey Johnny?”

“Yeah?”

“You can close your eyes, or do whatever the android equivalent of sleep is.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll try not to scare you awake again.”

“Thank you.”

Taeil fell asleep a little easier that night compared the first few.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ Twitter ](https://twitter.com/jokheiz)
> 
> [ Curious Cat ](https://curiouscat.me/jokheiz)


	3. INPUT LOG 003.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taeil had many thoughts and all of them seemed to contradict each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk why my heart is pounding after finishing this chapter but it is. enjoy?? that explicit rating comes (haha) in here.

“ _In other news, reports coming in about a malfunctioning android servicing the Westin Seoul Hotel reveal that several guests were sent to hospital with minor injuries when the android—it’s job having been to open and close doors for incoming and outgoing guests—began to swing the hotel doors wildly. Neo Tech has not yet commented on this developing matter while Marriott International has stated that they will be doing a full inspection on all serviced androids in all of their hotels worldwide.”_

Johnny was absorbed in watching the news while Taeil and Yuta ate their dinner—kimchi fried rice, as prepared by Johnny.

“Damn,” Yuta had grunted after the first bite. “He’s better than me.”

“You burn meatballs.” Taeyong had pointed out and Yuta stuck his tongue out.

Taeil had smiled because Yuta and Taeyong’s bickering felt familiar, almost comforting. He’d been needing it.

It was near the end of their meal when the news report had come on, Taeil leaning back in his chair and turning his attention onto the TV once his plate was empty. It was rare, he noticed, that they’d hear about malfunctioning androids. Of course, every machine would need repairs at one point, wouldn’t they? He wondered if it was that android manufacturing was better and didn’t need the same maintenance as a communal coffee machine, or if it was something that just didn’t get covered in the media. He’d heard of companies doing that sometimes, celebrities too—hushing up stories. He had a tiny bit of hope that the company he worked for wouldn’t be like that, but you just couldn’t ever be so sure, could you?

Taeil let his attention drift away from the TV and without meaning to, his gaze landed on Johnny—still fully enraptured in the broadcast—and a horrible thought passed through Taeil’s mind: Would Johnny break down one day? Would Taeil need to get him repaired?

He involuntarily shuddered and let the thought escape him. He’d start worrying about that if it ever happened—in the meantime, maybe he should start looking up reliable android repair shops. Just in case.

It was approaching three weeks since Johnny had arrived to Taeil’s apartment and to say he was getting attached… well, he couldn’t really deny it. He wouldn’t admit it—but he also wouldn’t say he didn’t like the way the android’s presence lit up some places in Taeil’s life that he hadn’t realized needed brightening.

“That android,” Johnny turned his attention to Taeil, who wasn’t sure if he’d noticed his staring or not. “Do you think they’re sad?”

Yuta had finished his own dinner, utensils on the table, watching Taeil intently for his answer.

“I don’t know,” Taeil shook his head, truthful. He had no idea. “I’m not sure those androids work the same as you and Taeyong.”

Johnny tilted his head. “What makes us different?”

Taeil hesitated, thinking through his words carefully before he spoke. “I don’t think they… I don’t think they were given the same kind of… free thought, as you two have. I think they’re closer to an automatic door—they’re programmed to only open the door when they sense someone is near.”

Johnny slowly nodded his head, thoughtful.

“I don’t think you’d want them to think like you—it wouldn’t be very nice if they wanted to go somewhere or talk to someone but they couldn’t because they can’t move, right?”

“Taeyong can’t move even if he wanted to.”

Taeil swallowed. Yuta had dropped his gaze, now staring intently at his plate. Taeil knew he’d get himself into some sort of conversation like this eventually. He’d often repeated that he didn’t actually know all the right answers, but Johnny always asked for his input anyway.

“Trust me, if I could take Taeyong out of this apartment and to the park—I would.”

“Do you really mean that?”

If Taeyong had a face, Taeil imagined eyes that would turn wide, innocent and hopeful. “Of course.”

“Thank you. And thank you for your concern Johnny, but I am happy as Taeil’s Home too. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Johnny nodded, seemingly understanding to drop the subject while still thinking hard about it, Taeil could see it in his expression. Yuta however, seemed to be staring right through his empty plate now, lost in his own thoughts. Taeil had to jostle him to get his attention when reaching for his plate so it could go in the dishwasher.

Taeil wondered what had him so distracted, but he didn’t pry.

The rest of the evening was just like all those other nights with Yuta, except now there were three people on the couch instead of two. Johnny seemed to enjoy Yuta’s choice in anime for the evening.

When Yuta finally let out a cat-like yawn, running a hand through his long black hair—he suggested he head off to his own apartment for bed.

“Goodnight.” Taeil smiled at him from the couch. They’d spent too many nights together like this, there was no need for formality of sending him off at the door.

But Yuta’s odd behaviour persisted when he hesitated before making his way to the exit. “Hey Taeil,” his voice was uncertain, causing Taeil to turn to look at him from the couch again. “Can I talk to you outside for a minute?”

_So neither Taeyong or Johnny could hear them,_ Taeil’s mind supplied. He raised a questioning brow but said nothing as he got up and followed Yuta out of the apartment.

“What’s going on?” He asked once the door was shut and Yuta didn’t seem to want to start the conversation he’d initiated in the first place.

“Do you think… Do you think…” Taeil had never heard Yuta so uncertain before. “Do you think we should be telling them those things? Like—is that smart?”

“Do I have a reason not to?”

“I mean they’re just… they’re just not _human_ , like us.”

Taeil sighed. “I honestly don’t think it matters. They were made by us, no? Is that not a little bit human?” He took a deep breath before continuing. He hadn’t ever had this full conversation with Yuta before, but he hoped it wouldn’t change much between them. “They learn, they optimize their decisions based on past experiences—like we do—and then they make their choice, but what I’ve noticed is that they don’t do it the same. Neither Johnny or Taeyong will figure out a puzzle the exact same way, like you and I, we won’t do it the same either. I don’t know if there are other AIs like this, but I hardly doubt I ended up with the only two in the world who can think. Maybe it’s the way I treat them, but I can’t do it any other way. I didn’t grow up with this stuff, I see or hear something that looks or sounds human so I treat them like one.”

“But,” Yuta was breathing heavily and if Taeil reached his hand out, he would probably be able to feel Yuta’s heart slamming against his chest. “But, we don’t know, we can’t even tell if they’re lying—”

“You can’t tell if I’m lying.”

“Actually I can, you bite the inside of your cheek, so.”

“Okay, bad example. Actually no, wait. Johnny purses his lips when he’s deep in thought.”

That didn’t seem to convince Yuta, so Taeil tried a different tactic.

“You don’t treat Johnny the same way you treat Taeyong.”

“Well that’s… that’s…” Yuta’s voice faded as his eyes lowered to the ground.

“Different?” Taeil supplied. He hadn’t really realized he’d been so ready to fight this fight, but he supposed it was from all the practice conversations he’d had in his head on how to tell Doyoung about Johnny. “Yeah, they’re different. Not the same. Machines are all supposed to be the same, right? They’re all supposed to work the same way?”

“But they don’t.” Yuta whispered, more to himself. He looked like he needed to lie down.

Taeil reached his hand out, placing it on Yuta’s shoulder for comfort, to keep him steady, whatever he needed. “I know it’s hard—I’m not saying they’re exactly like us but I don’t think they deserve to be treated like anything less. I won’t get into the topic of consciousness and free will, but if you came up to me saying you wanted to know something, you wanted to _do_ something? I’d let you. Unless it was detrimental to your health and safety of course. And I’d do the same with the other two. Well, trying with Johnny. He still doesn’t understand the whole ‘ _wanting_ ’ thing yet.”

“But he’s… learning?”

Taeil nodded. “He’s learning.”

Yuta took a moment to breathe, so Taeil stood there with him, his thumb rubbing small circles into his friend’s shoulder. A storm was in his eyes, dark and cloudy so Taeil waited until it passed to talk again. “What’s wrong? What’s been bothering you?”

“Nothing, really,” Yuta shrugged him off. It wasn’t cold, or dismissing—in fact, Yuta looked lighter than he had all week. “I guess I just never thought I’d consider some AIs as my friends. Huh.”

“I just don’t think it’s such a bad thing, you know?” It felt good though, to air his thoughts out like that. It wasn’t like Taeil could just talk to Taeyong about it. There was something nagging in the back of his mind though. “I mean humans  _made_ the robots—we can’t talk to them? It’s like having a child and not raising them to be human.”

“I don’t think it’s exactly like that, but don’t get into that nature versus nurture shit with me,” Yuta seemed to fully return to his old self, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t ask for a philosophy lecture—weren’t you a music major anyway? When did you even take philosophy?”

Taeil shrugged. “I needed to fill electives.”

Yuta shook his head in disbelief, but smiled as he backed down the hallway towards the elevator. “See you at work tomorrow, yeah?”

“See you.”

Taeil walked back into his apartment and promptly flopped back onto the couch. Neither Johnny or Taeyong asked him about his conversation with Yuta.

Johnny did however, turn to Taeil with a smile. “I like Yuta.”

“Yeah?” Taeil turned his whole body towards him, interested.

“Yeah.” Johnny’s eyes seemed to twinkle. “I think I’m starting to understand the importance of other relationships now. All I’d ever been told was that whoever bought—whoever got me was the only person who mattered, but I like Yuta and I like Taeyong and I think they matter too.”

“What made you come to this conclusion?” It was one of Taeil’s favourite questions to ask.

“Well, if anything happened to them—I’d be sad.”

Taeil vaguely heard Taeyong coo and say thanks. He shifted in his spot on the couch, not uncomfortable, just feeling… different. “And what about me?”

Johnny’s eyes went wide almost instantly, almost utterly horrified at the thought of something bad happening to Taeil. “I’d be devastated! I won’t let anything bad happen to you!”

For once, Taeil wished he wouldn’t have asked. Despite his high and mighty speech to Yuta, Taeil found doubt and uncertainty creeping over him. Johnny had just said he’d been taught to only care about the buyer—the one who’s needs he had to fulfill. How much of that programming was still there, when he looked at Taeil and professed those words? It was the complete opposite of what he'd preached to Yuta. 

Taeil didn’t know which scared him the most—those thoughts of Johnny's being organic, or programmed. Both options terrified him.

It didn’t mean he was going to treat Johnny as less than human—he’d never. Taeil didn’t think it was part of his own biology to be able to do that. He really did believe every word he said to Yuta. It was just that ugly seed of doubt had begun to grow vines and take hold of his innards, for reasons Taeil couldn’t think about.

Either way, Moon Taeil had to declare himself a complete and utter hypocrite.

 

 

 

Taeil had two routines in the morning now. His regular one, and the recent one he made when he started to wake up with a tightness in his shorts that he really wished he had some sort of control over.

His new routine went like this: step one, pretend it wasn’t there. Step two, roll out of bed as quickly as possible and shuffle to the bathroom. Step three, get rid of it in the shower and step four—act like it never happened. It was basic, but it worked.

Other than that, the rest of his routine stayed the same. He’d eat breakfast with his green tea, which he now shared with Johnny, and he’d head out to work and take the subway with Yuta.

Sleep wise—he was doing fine. He wasn’t as tired but he didn’t feel completely rested either. He blamed the slight fear of waking up with a boner in the morning and having to deal with it. It was biology though, sometimes it just happened, Taeil knew that. But it happened way too often for it to be just about biology and more about the other body in his bed.

Taeil didn’t want to deal with that just yet.

Work went a little differently that day, Taeil got to his desk and was immediately pinged to the conference room. In there was his boss, Kyungsoo, along with Doyoung and another co-worker of theirs, Jungwoo. Taeil had only talked to him a handful of times before, but they got along well enough. Standing next to Kyungsoo though, were three young looking boys in their best suits—the interns—Taeil realized after internally cooing over them.

Kyungsoo cleared his throat when Taeil sat down with his co-workers. “Gentlemen, I’m sure you’ve heard of the handful of interns our company is getting from Seoul Tech University,” He gestured towards the boys. “These three have been assigned to our department and I’ve chosen the three of you for them to shadow. This is Donghyuck, Mark and Jeno.”

They all had quiet, shy smiles, while the one in the middle—Mark—fidgeted with his fingers and picked at the skin beside his nails. Donghyuck and Jeno managed to stay still.

“This is Doyoung, Jungwoo and Taeil.” Kyungsoo continued the introductions, pointing to each of the men sitting at the table. Taeil gave them an easy smile and a small wave of the hand when his name was spoken. “Jeno—you’ll be with Doyoung, Mark with Jungwoo and Donghyuck, you’ll be shadowing Taeil. I’ve given them the basic rundown already, but if anyone has any important questions, please direct them to me. That is all.”

Kyungsoo left the conference room with a clap of his hands—brief as always. Taeil looked at Donghyuck, a boy only a little taller than him, with tanned skin and dyed brown hair that he hadn’t quite managed to wrangle into a neat hairstyle—not like Mark or Jeno had with their jet black and perfectly coiffed hair off of their foreheads. Taeil stood up with the rest of his co-workers and introduced himself to his new shadow.

“Taeil.” Taeil shook his hand. It was soft but clammy.

“I know, Mr. Do said that.” There was a hint of mischief in his smile that was still a little shy. “Donghyuck.”

Taeil’s smile widened. “I know. Nice to meet you, Hyuck.”

 

 

 

“Not fair.” Yuta pouted at lunch with Taeil and Doyoung. The interns had decided to have lunch together, even though they’d been invited to share a table with Taeil and his friends. “I wanted an intern.”

“So you could corrupt them with your gossiping and your work ethic? I don’t think so.” Doyoung scoffed but it was playful—Yuta could probably pull a better performance review than Doyoung if he _really_ tried.

“It would have been cool to have a minion. What are they like so far?”

Doyoung answered first as Taeil chewed a bite of his sandwich. “Quiet. Jeno’s very concentrated on learning everything as quickly as possible. It’s admirable.”

Yuta nodded and turned to Taeil. “And yours?”

“He’s not _mine_ ,” Taeil chuckled, swallowing. “He’s nice. Cute. Very concentrated as well, but he has a good sense of humour.” Donghyuck was also kind of evasive, never answering anything in depth when Taeil tried to get to know him. He did excitedly accept Taeil’s nickname for him though, as if no one had called him a shortened version of his name before. He figured the kid would feel comfortable with time. He hoped he could give that to him.

Yuta pouted even more. “I wanted my own little shadow.”

 

 

 

When Taeil arrived back home that night he wasn’t surprised to find Johnny in front of the TV—watching whatever anime Yuta had him hooked on now. He took his new friend’s recommendations very seriously. Taeil thought it was nice, because as much as he loved Yuta, he couldn’t pretend to really be super interested, but Johnny was nothing but genuine whenever he asked for a new show to watch. If Yuta wasn’t there, Taeyong would answer for him. Taeil didn’t know if it surprised him or not that his Home was also attuned to his best friend’s show preferences. He decided not to give it too much thought for now.

“Just letting you know, Taeil,” Taeyong chirped when Taeil had gotten into more comfortable clothes, a white longsleeve and black shorts. “We’re running low on milk, sugar, baking powder and butter.”

“Gee,” Taeil thought of all the different baked goods in their pantry and fridge. “I wonder why.”

Johnny flushed a slight red and Taeil smiled at him reassuringly. “Don’t worry, I blame Taeyong for it.”

“Guilty as charged!”

They decided to go and get the groceries before dinner so Taeil wouldn't use a full stomach as an excuse to not go out, and he still thought it was unfair that Johnny was stuck in the apartment all day—but the android had refused to go out on his own even if he’d been offered a cell phone. He was afraid of getting lost. Taeil thought that was endearing.

They left without coats because Kun’s corner store wasn’t very far away and they wouldn’t be gone long, bidding Taeyong a temporary goodbye.

“Are your legs not cold?” Johnny asked on the short walk over, pointedly looking at Taeil’s calves. Taeil had almost forgotten he’d even been wearing shorts. At least he’d been smart enough to wear the ones that went to his knees since he’d gone out without thinking about it.

“Oh, no, not really.” Taeil shrugged. “I think my legs might be the warmest part of my body, really.”

“They aren’t.” Johnny’s smile wasn’t directed at Taeil, so it made him wonder what he was thinking about. “Your chest is. And your hands.”

Something in Taeil’s stomach shifted even though it was empty. He couldn’t tell if it was good or bad. He pushed it out of his mind as the bell rang when he opened the door to the corner store.

He nodded to Kun and went straight towards the cold aisle, ignoring the way the man’s eyes twinkled curiously at Taeil’s company.

“Oh,” Johnny looked around, taking everything in. His eyes landed on a small display of clothing. “This is where you got my clothes the first night.”

Taeil nodded, turning the corner and grabbing his usual milk brand. It already seemed so long ago, when Johnny had first arrived to Taeil’s apartment. He gathered the rest of the things they needed to restock on and headed to the cash, where Kun was waiting patiently with a dimpled smile.

“Hi,” He looked at Taeil, then to Johnny, who was still absorbing everything, like he did with every new location. Taeil knew the greeting wasn’t really directed at him, so he didn’t answer, which caused Johnny to pay attention, looking over at the man that scanned their items.

“Hi,” He replied. “Does this store have _everything?_ ”

“Almost!” The reply came from around the corner, and there appeared Ten, holding a box of what Taeil assumed to be merchandise and setting it on the counter. Ten looked over at Taeil and smiled, then over at Johnny, and he stopped moving.

Taeil looked between the two of them. Time almost seemed frozen. Johnny didn’t move either, standing more still than Taeil had ever seen before. He looked to Kun, who looked at him, equally as confused—he’d even forgotten to start bagging Taeil’s items.

Suddenly Ten started to move again, as if nothing had happened. “You must be Taeil’s new friend. I’m Ten!”

Johnny’s smile was softer than Taeil thought he’d ever seen it. “I’m Johnny.”

“I’m… Kun?” Kun slowly started bagging Taeil’s items, trying to catch up. Taeil was trying to do the same. Had they skipped over something?

“It’s on your name tag, silly.” Ten chuckled. “Also, you have to give Taeil the machine to pay.”

Taeil had almost forgotten that he hadn’t yet. He quickly scrambled to get his card out of his wallet and tapped it on the machine Kun passed to him, mirroring the confusion on the vendor’s face.

“Hope to see you soon!” Ten waved as they made their way out and Johnny waved back. Taeil couldn’t help but feel like he’d lost a puzzle piece somewhere.

 

 

 

Johnny only brought it up in the middle of making dinner.

“I guess situations like ours are more similar than I thought.”

Taeil frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Kun and Ten,” Johnny smiled to himself as he gave the rice a stir. “I wonder what Kun’s initial intentions were.”

“They—he— _wait_ ,” It was like Johnny had handed Taeil the puzzle piece backwards, upside down and Taeil was turning it every which way and trying to figure out which way it went.

Finally, he got it to fit. “You’re telling me Ten’s an android?”

“Sexbot C-H-T-T-N-zero-two-two-seven.”

The puzzle was completed but the picture was still blurry.

“Ten’s a… Ten’s a sexbot.” Taeil had known them for how long already? Almost a year?

Johnny hummed in response.

“And you can just—recognize other androids?”

Johnny shrugged, continuing to cook. To be fair, it wasn’t as big of a revelation to him as it was to Taeil. “I hadn’t met another sexbot until then—but when we looked at each other his number came into my head, so yeah, I guess. I’m assuming it’s with all androids.”

“Taeil, the meat is burning.” Taeyong spoke and Taeil hurriedly flipped over the meat in the pan. It was only slightly charred.

So Kun had… Taeil remembered Ten just appearing one day, working at Kun’s store. He’d thought he was just some employee Kun had hired, but then again he’d also thought—

“Wow, I really thought they were boyfriends or something.”

When Taeyong spoke again, his words hung thick in the air. “Maybe they are.”

 

 

 

Taeil couldn’t even concentrate on the news after dinner, thoughts swarmed his head like bees. He wondered if Ten had told Kun that Johnny was a sexbot too. He supposed they had a little more in common now. Would they talk about it?

“You’re thinking very hard.” Johnny poked Taeil’s temple.

“I have a lot to think about.”

“Then is it too much if I ask a question?”

“No, of course not,” Taeil shook his head, as if to declutter everything to make room for Johnny’s request. “What is it?”

Johnny looked over his face and it made Taeil long to know how everything worked in the android’s mind. “When will you let me help you?”

Taeil stared at him. “Help me with what?” Had Johnny always been this… enigmatic?

“Your morning erections.” Johnny said simply and Taeil choked on his own spit. “Well, not just those,” The android continued, much to Taeil’s dismay. “Any of them. All of them. When can I help?”

The vines of doubt pulled at Taeil’s innards painfully. “You—I—”

“I know you’ve been getting rid of them yourself in the shower, but I can help! I’m learning all these other things, like jokes and trying to recognize emotions and trying to get along with other people but that,” Johnny smiled brightly. “I can do that. I know I can do that and that I’m good at it. No doubt. It’s what I was made for.”

Taeil’s stomach churned almost violently. “No,” He stuttered and Johnny’s eyes widened in surprise. It was the first time the android had ever seen him like this. Not calm and collected. Taeil imagined he’d lost all the colour in his face. “No, Johnny—I can’t.”

Johnny pouted and his eyes turned sad— _sad_. Taeil couldn’t look at him. “Why not? I can do it! Better than I can do anything else! Please—”

“No—It doesn’t feel right.”

“Why not?” Johnny asked again. Taeil was reminded that Johnny was still learning about identifying and not crossing boundaries. Taeil’s chest tightened.

It was Taeyong who started to speak. He did a lot more observing lately, Taeil had noticed. “Johnny, don’t push so hard.”

Johnny sat up straighter, eyes boring into Taeil’s. “Oh—oh I’m sorry, Taeil. I just didn’t understand—I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer. I’m sorry.” He started to reach his hand out but seemed to think better of it and settled it in his own lap instead.

Taeil knew Johnny was misunderstanding the situation—but he couldn’t very well tell the android that the person who was encouraging him to be more human was even doubting everything the android said. What the fuck had gotten into Taeil? For the first time in a long time, he wanted to cry. He didn’t want to say no to Johnny. He didn’t want to not believe him. He wanted to trust in his words, in him. He wanted to get rid of whatever the fuck was preventing him from doing it. Where had his confidence gone from his conversation with Yuta? What the fuck had changed?

It was Taeil who reached out instead, because he needed to let Johnny know it wasn’t like what he thought it was at least—he took Johnny’s large hand in both of his and traced the lines of his palm with his fingers. He didn’t know if it was to comfort Johnny or himself.

“I don’t… I don’t want to use you like that.” Taeil whispered. “I don’t want you to feel used.”

Johnny’s eyes widened even more. “I won’t—you won’t—I want this. I want to.”

_Want_. The word Taeil had been trying to get Johnny to use more often. And yet there he was—not believing it. Taeil had never been so frustrated with himself.

“I’m sorry, Johnny,” Taeil shook his head. The way Johnny’s face fell broke his heart. “No.”

He felt even worse when Johnny still willingly let him into his arms that night. He didn’t think he was very deserving of that.

 

 

 

Taeil woke up with an involuntary moan, pelvis pressed up to a warm cushion. Skin—his mind supplied despite it’s grogginess. It felt so good it made him shiver.

“Good morning, Taeil.” Johnny’s breath was hot on his ear and Taeil’s first instinct was to push his pelvis further into the warmth, searching for friction. God, Johnny felt _good._

Wait—

Taeil’s eyes shot open, immediately scrambling to sit up, a broken “No!” ripped from his lips. His breathing was heavy as he looked over at Johnny and Taeil tried to ignore the mix of confusion and hurt he saw reflected in the android’s eyes. Taeil looked down at himself, horrified at the tent in his shorts. Of fucking course. _Fuck_.

He leapt off the bed and practically ran to the bathroom, getting in the shower and letting cold water wash over him—trying to will his horribly timed erection away.

“Taeil—” Taeyong’s voice came out of nowhere—which made sense, he was literally a voice but that didn’t mean it didn’t scare Taeil half to death, grabbing at the tiled wall as his knees buckled. He caught himself before he could fall completely to the ground. His heart and mind were going at a million miles a second.

“I’m sorry,” Taeyong winced, apologetic. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just think we should talk about—”

“No,” Taeil slowly stood up, careful not to slip. His erection was slowly disappearing under the harshness of the cold water. “I’m sorry Taeyong—I can’t. Not right now.” Probably not ever. He’d hurt him if he did tell. It was just so hard. Taeil had many thoughts and all of them seemed to contradict each other. He treated the AIs as human—he _wanted_ to, wholeheartedly, he knew that. But why was it so _fucking hard_ to believe that Johnny’s wants were his real wants, and not something programmed for him to feel? Was it because it made him… more real?

Taeil held his breath and let the water run down his face, trying to clear his mind of any thought whatsoever. He gasped for air when he pulled away. His erection was completely gone now, replaced by an unrecognizable ache in Taeil’s bones.

“Okay.” Taeyong was quiet. “I’ve just never seen you like this before.”

To his credit, Taeil hadn’t ever been like this before. He didn’t know what was happening. He knew it was somewhere inside him, too buried to see it, to understand it—but it was there, present enough not to ignore anymore.

He didn’t answer his Home as he got out of the shower, and he didn’t answer him when he went back into his room to change into his clothes. Johnny wasn’t there. Taeil tried swallowing the lump in his throat as he made his way downstairs, dressed and ready for work. Johnny was sat on the couch, eyes glued to the TV. Taeil’s favourite green teacup was on the counter, already steaming with his morning beverage.

It made him feel worse.

He managed to croak a goodbye to the AIs, and they both answered back. That made it worse too.

Yuta stared at him the moment he got into the elevator and didn't speak a word all the way to work. Taeil didn’t know if that made it better or worse. Maybe it didn’t do anything at all.

 

 

  
It was just Yuta and Taeil for their lunch break, Doyoung having too much fun with his new intern friend (Yuta’s words) while Donghyuck had gone to lunch with the other intern, Mark. They sat in silence before Yuta sighed loudly, finally deciding to bite the bullet.

“Okay, what the fuck is up?” There wasn’t anyone near them, but Yuta still hushed his voice as best he could. “You look like you kicked a puppy. Multiple puppies. Like, just straight up trampled.”

Taeil grimaced. “Thanks for that imagery.”

Yuta rolled his eyes. “It’s what you look like. What the fuck is going on?”

It was Taeil’s turn to sigh. He explained the best he could—the parts of it that he understood, anyway.

Yuta stared at him and Taeil could see the gears moving in his head. “Okay—let me get this straight.” His hands were moving wildly as he spoke, as if it would help him understand Taeil’s situation. “You’re upset… because your sexbot… wants to have sex with you. You’re telling me you refused sex with your _sexbot_ and you’re upset about it. You’re aware these words came out of your mouth, right?”

Taeil’s head fell into his hands with a groan. “Yes? No? Sort of? There’s more, I just—I don’t know.”

“Holy shit, this is really bothering you.”

Taeil groaned again. “Yeah.”

“Okay, well,” Yuta’s eyes searched the dull grey round table they sat at, as if it would give him the answers. Taeil hoped it might. “Remember our conversation a couple of nights ago? About treating them as human? That if Johnny said he wanted something, you’d do it? I’m assuming you do want to have sex with him, right?”

Taeil’s bee swarm of thoughts had returned again. But he knew the answer, even if it wasn’t the one he wanted. Or was it? He didn’t know. “Yeah,” He nodded, face still covered. “Yeah, I do.”

“Okay, so, you haven’t given Johnny any reason to just give in to _‘programming’_ like that or whatever. If he wants something—which you’ve been trying to get him to say—doesn’t that mean he really wants it? You want to treat him like a human—you _do_ treat him like a human. What’s blocking you suddenly?”

Well that was the problem, wasn’t it? Taeil had no idea. “I don’t know—I don’t…” He sighed, his hands curling into fists, knuckles digging into his forehead. Yuta looked very concerned. It was his first time seeing Taeil like this too. He reached over and pulled Taeil’s wrists onto the table, enclosing his hands over Taeil’s fists.

“What are you so afraid of?”

 

 

 

Taeil sat on the couch, not paying attention to the TV. His thoughts were far from the present. Most of the time though, he thought about Ten and Kun. He didn’t know why.

He’d always assumed they were a thing. It had seemed like they were a thing. Maybe they were a thing.

Could they be a thing?

He didn’t see why not.

Why was he even thinking about them?

He sighed. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Johnny look over at him, concerned, on edge. Taeil hated that he was doing this to him.

It took him a while, but he finally decided to speak up. “Can I ask you something?” Taeil couldn’t really look Johnny in the eyes, not yet. “Both of you?”

“Of course.” Johnny sounded sincere.

“Ask away.” Taeyong agreed.

It felt weird to be on the other side of the conversation. Usually it was Taeil who answered the questions, he didn’t really ask them like that. He took a deep breath. “If you two want something—really, _really_ wanted something—you’d be truthful about it, right? You’d mean it? If Taeyong wanted to watch the news channel it would be because you actually wanted to, right? Not just for me?”

He dared a glance at Johnny, who was looking at him thoughtfully. He was relieved not to see any of that hurt in his eyes he’d witnessed in the morning. Taeil hated that, didn’t ever want to be the cause of that again.

“Of course,” It was Taeyong who replied. “But don’t you make that fish dinner for Yuta sometimes, even though you don’t really like it?”

Out of all the ways to respond, Taeil did not expect himself to let out a chuckle. “That… doesn’t really help me right now, Yong.” But the Home had a point. This was way more complicated than Taeil ever thought it would be.

Johnny inched closer, placing a tentative hand on Taeil’s knee. Taeil placed his own hand on top, because he still felt the need to encourage Johnny, even if it was him the android was trying to make feel better. Taeil realized the touch did make him feel a little better.

“If it helps,” Johnny spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. He must of thought long and hard about what he was going to say. The thought of that made Taeil’s chest constrict. “It feels good for me too. And I know I’m good at it—I don’t have to worry I’m doing or saying something wrong, like with everything else. I want to do it.”

Taeil’s hand tightened over Johnny’s. “Why?”

Johnny looked thoughtful. “I’ve mapped over every face I’ve seen so far, and out of all of them—yours is my favourite. That’s attraction, right? Out of everyone I’ve met, you’re my favourite.”

Taeil’s first thought was— _programmed comment_ —but quickly shoved it away. Taeil’s face had been the first Johnny had seen after stepping out of his box, but that didn’t mean it was programmed that way. Johnny wasn’t _supposed_ to have favourites—but Taeil had encouraged him.

It was subtle, but it was louder than the rest, so Taeil noticed it immediately. An irregular thud of his heartbeat that sent a lump of fear to his throat. He swallowed it down.

“Let me think about it.” Was all he could manage to whisper.

 

 

  
Taeil dreamed that night. He was in Kun’s corner store, except he was behind the register instead of in front of it. He helped a customer check out their items and felt arms wrap around him from behind when they left. He turned his head to see Ten, smiling at him.

“Hi.” Ten smiled at him and they kissed.

Taeil’s heart fluttered. It didn’t scare him in the dream. Maybe it was because he was Kun and not Taeil.

He helped another customer, the arms still firmly around his waist.

The customer left, and Taeil heard another “Hi.” The voice was lower this time. Instead of turning, Taeil looked up.

Johnny smiled at him and leaned down for a kiss.

Taeil didn’t think he was Kun anymore. It felt nice not to be afraid.

One of the hands on his waist strayed downward, and dream-Johnny palmed dream-Taeil’s crotch.

It felt _really_ good.

 

 

Taeil was not surprised when he woke up, pelvis pressed against Johnny’s thigh again. His hips grinded closer.

“Taeil.” Johnny whispered. It sent shivers down his spine.

Taeil slowly moved his hips again and fuck did it ever feel good.

“Taeil,” Johnny whispered again, a little more urgently. “Taeil, you need to get up. You said you had to think about it.”

Taeil groaned, turning his face into his pillow. He was tired of thinking so much. He was tired of waking up with erections and having to get rid of them himself. He was tired of denying something he knew was going to happen.

“Do you want to?” He mumbled into the pillow. Johnny stilled and Taeil wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t hear him right.

Eventually, Johnny breathed out. “Do you?”

Taeil nodded without even thinking twice. He shoved down every negative thought that threatened to ruin it. He wanted this. He knew he did. “I want to.”

Much like dream-Johnny, real life Johnny slowly snaked his hand down Taeil’s side, brushing the hem of his navy sweater upwards. It left a trail of goosebumps on the skin he touched.

“Tell me if you don’t want it.” Johnny whispered and Taeil wondered how and when their roles had reversed. Taeil was supposed to be the one comforting Johnny. Maybe it was supposed to be a two-way street.

Johnny’s finger traced the lining of Taeil’s shorts, making him shudder before slowly pulling them down. It was torture in the best way. Taeil had to turn his head so he wouldn’t suffocate in the pillow, but made the mistake of glancing at Johnny’s face. He was watching him carefully, a confident smile resting on his lips. Johnny was at ease. Taeil’s chest did that thump thing again. He buried his face in Johnny’s shoulder, curling in towards him.

The air was cold and his skin was hot but somehow Johnny’s hands were even hotter. He pulled Taeil’s shorts down to his knees and slowly traced back upwards over his thighs. He pushed up the hem of Taeil’s sweater and Taeil could feel his hardness resting on his stomach.

Johnny placed his hand right beside Taeil’s cock, waiting.

“I want to.” Taeil assured him. Maybe their roles hadn’t changed too drastically. That was comforting. “Please.”

Taeil wasn’t sure how much more he could dig his nose into Johnny’s shoulder when his fingers wrapped around Taeil's cock so fucking slowly. It had been so long since he’d been touched by anyone other than himself. Taeil was already wet—the curse of morning wood and because he was so ridiculously attracted to the android in his bed. Johnny used it to make his slow strokes less rough. Taeil had to concentrate on breathing. The muscles in his stomach tightened.

He whined when Johnny let go. His hand danced to Taeil’s hip and Johnny shifted, leaning over Taeil to whisper in his ear.

“May I use my mouth?”

Taeil didn’t trust himself to speak without choking. He nodded.

Johnny shifted again, crawling towards the end of the bed and settling himself on his stomach between Taeil’s legs. Taeil was pretty sure the other half of Johnny’s body was completely off the other end of the mattress, but Johnny made no noise of discomfort. He pulled Taeil’s shorts off the rest of the way and tossed them. Taeil didn’t watch to see where they went, now missing a place to stuff his reddened face so he threw his arm over his eyes and chewed at his bottom lips.

He flinched at the first lick, thighs tensing.

His toes curled when Johnny swirled his tongue around the head of his cock.

Taeil moaned when Johnny took him fully into his mouth.

Johnny’s fingers dug into Taeil’s thighs as he sucked, keeping them steady when they began to shake. It didn’t take long. Heat pooled at the base of Taeil’s stomach and he found himself staring down into Johnny’s eyes, resisting the urge to reach down and tuck his dark hair behind his ear.

The image was… something else. Taeil liked it. A lot.

He wished he wasn’t scared of it.

Taeil moaned Johnny’s name and the android took all of his release into his mouth.

It was the morning but suddenly Taeil was tired and all he wanted to do was curl back up into bed and sleep. He closed his eyes. A weight lifted off the mattress and he heard Johnny laughing softly, grabbing his hand and pulling him to sit up.

“C’mon,” Taeil still had his eyes closed but he could practically hear the grin on Johnny’s lips. “You need to shower before work, Taeil.”

Taeil sighed. He knew that. That didn’t mean he wanted to though.

“I don’t want to go to work.”

Johnny laughed at him again. “Too bad.”

 

 

 

Taeil felt lighter when he stepped into the apartment elevator. Not completely erased of his bee swarm of thoughts, but still, lighter.

The elevator went down and stopped at the seventh floor with a bell chime, opening the doors and Yuta walked in. He stopped short the minute he looked at Taeil, almost not making it inside as the doors closed right behind his back.

Yuta stared at him, then broke into a wicked grin. “Oh my god, you fucked him!”

Taeil’s cheeks turned red and he didn’t hesitate to smack Yuta on the shoulder. He flinched, but it didn’t erase that stupid smile off his face.

“I didn’t fuck him!” Taeil clarified. “It was just a—” He lowered his voice when the elevator doors opened at the lobby and the two stepped out. “—blowjob.”

“Holy shit,” Yuta looked way too excited about it, clapping his hands together as they made their way to the subway. Taeil prayed no one was listening to them. “I just can’t believe my speech worked! It was my speech, right? Taeyong didn’t think it would help you at all, so please say it was my speech.”

Taeil sighed. “It was kind of your speech. And kind of a dream. And I was tired and horny.” It took him a minute to register the rest of Yuta’s words. He frowned as they stepped onto the arriving subway train. There weren’t any free seats so they stood, holding the bars to keep them steady. “Wait, when did you talk about this with Taeyong?”

“He texts me,” Yuta shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal. Taeil thought it was, Taeyong hadn’t told him about it, and he’d never given him Yuta’s phone number. _Huh_.

“And what did you tell him of my… dilemma?”

“Nothing he didn’t know already. I let him specify what he’d knew, what he’d noticed. Are you gonna actually fuck Johnny then? I kind of have a bet with Yong about that too— _man_ it feels good to win over an AI!”

Taeil didn’t hold himself back when he smacked Yuta on the shoulder again. He smiled apologetically when he received a few concerned looks. Yuta just laughed at him until his expression became softer, looking at Taeil thoughtfully. “Do you at least feel better about it now?”

Taeil hesitated. He felt better about… certain things. Some things felt the same. Nothing felt worse though.

Yuta decided to change his question. “Did you figure out what you were so afraid of?”

“Yeah,” Taeil let out a heavy sigh. He’d figured it out but it was the first time he was admitting it to anyone, even himself. If he treated Johnny like a human, then he became more real. If Johnny became more real, then—“I’m gonna fall in love with him.”

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ Twitter ](https://twitter.com/jokheiz)
> 
> [ Curious Cat ](https://curiouscat.me/jokheiz)


	4. INPUT LOG 004.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do you think someone could ever love me?”

Taeil could sense it, the handful of questions that had Yuta’s tongue tied in a knot, unable to speak them out loud. He hadn’t spoken much since Taeil’s revelation on the way to work, he’d only managed to sputter out _whats_ and _hows_ until they’d gotten to their building. Now that it was lunch time and they were joined by not only Doyoung, but also their interns—Donghyuck and Jeno—Yuta didn’t say anything about it. Taeil was grateful. He didn’t want his first mention of Johnny to Doyoung to be the fact that he was very much aware he’d probably fall in love with his android.

Taeil sighed.

“You good?” Doyoung asked, ever the observer. Taeil just nodded, slipping on an easy smile.

“Yeah, just tired.”

“You’ve been looking better though,” Doyoung’s comment seemed to make Yuta still. Taeil sent him a warning gaze, unnoticed by anyone else. “You definitely look more rested. Whatever your Home has done for you is clearly working.”

“Thank you,” Taeil’s fingers went to his eyes, touching right below, feeling the light shadow that had gotten lighter over the past few weeks. “I’ll be sure to tell Taeyong.”

“Your Home has a name?” Donghyuck perked up from beside him. Taeil noticed that Jeno too, peered at him curiously.

“Yeah, he likes it. You know, he chose a last name for himself recently.” It was more directed at Yuta than anyone else.

“He…he did?” Yuta’s stare was blank.

“Yup,” Taeil nodded. “Called himself Lee Taeyong.”

“I like it,” Jeno piped up before anyone else said anything. It didn’t look like Yuta was going to be able to manage any more words though, which made Taeil rather curious himself. “It’s a good name.”

“I think so too.” Taeil said, watching Doyoung bite down on his food and swallow any comment he might have had. Doyoung had questioned it, but he’d never outright made fun or was horrible to the different way Taeil treated his Neo Tech products. Just thinking of them like that, as _products_ , made Taeil shiver, uncomfortable. Obviously, if his beloved intern Jeno liked the name, Doyoung wasn’t going to say anything about it. He likely wouldn’t have said anything either if the interns weren’t there—he’d long given up figuring out whatever it was that made Taeil see differently than he did. Taeil thought it was an amazing characteristic to have in a person, and appreciated Doyoung for it. Maybe he’d be able to at least see Taeil’s side one day. He didn’t necessarily think his own way was the _right_ way—if there even was one at all, but he still wanted his friend to understand, as one would with all of the people close to them.

It was after lunch that it was brought up again, only this time by the younger sitting with him at his desk.

“Can I ask you something personal?” Donghyuck tilted his head, looking rather cute.

“Go ahead.”

“Your Home… Taeyong. You speak about him like he’s your friend.”

Taeil scrolled through his e-mails  and answered without missing a beat. “He is my friend.”

When it became clear the intern had nothing else to say, Taeil turned to him, watching his face ponder. The edges of Donghyuck’s lips were tugged up into a small smile. “I thought you had a question?”

Donghyuck directed his smile at him with a hint of playfulness in his eyes and Taeil felt momentarily blinded. He really was a bright boy. “You already answered it.”

Taeil fake-sighed and shook his head, resulting in a few giggles from Donghyuck. “You’re a peculiar one, you know that?”

Donghyuck brightened even more. “And you’re fascinating, Moon Taeil.”

He took it as a compliment. “Thank you.”

Taeil punched out at exactly 5PM, with Yuta at his side and Doyoung trailing just behind them.

“Hey, can I come over tonight?” Doyoung asked as they made their way out of the Neo Tech office building. “It’s been a while.”

It had been almost a month, and it directly correlated with the time since Johnny’s arrival. Taeil, however, felt ready. Maybe it was from the power and acceptance that came with admitting his fear out loud. Taeil knew he’d probably fall in love with Johnny—he was just afraid of what would come after when he did. Would he ever tell Johnny? Most likely. He'd probably tell Taeyong first though. Would Johnny even love him back? Though he supposed that was a question for anybody, flesh or metal.

Taeil decided that he'd worry about it later because at that moment, he had to start formulating the right words to introduce Johnny to Doyoung. He still felt ready for it though, to introduce them—definitely not for the ‘love’ speech just yet.

"Of course, you're always welcome, Doyoung."

Yuta sent Taeil his own warning gaze that Taeil promptly ignored as they headed home.

"Thanks, it's been a while since I've had your cooking." Doyoung smiled as they stepped into the subway that had arrived and Yuta seemed to panic more and more the closer they got to the apartment building.

Taeil was calm. "Actually, I haven't been cooking so much anymore, my... friend—he's been cooking a lot for me."

"You have friends other than Yuta and I?" Doyoung looked impressed and Taeil made a point to pretend to hit him. "I'm joking! Will I be meeting this friend then tonight? I'll look forward to it. He better be better than you."

"He probably is by now." Taeil shrugged. He was too afraid to look at how much they'd spent on groceries already. Of course, all of it got eaten, especially since Taeil had started bringing food to the office to feed the hungry interns.

Yuta did not utter a word all the way to Taeil's apartment. He was almost expecting Yuta to go home on the seventh floor, but he stayed and followed them onto the eighth.

Taeil pressed his finger on the keypad, unlocking it and opening the door to his apartment. "We have guests." He announced, since Taeyong still felt bad about the last incident.

"Who is it?" Taeyong asked and Johnny peered from the kitchen, eyes alight at the prospect of meeting someone new, since Taeil didn't announce it anymore when Yuta came over.

"Doyoung, this is Johnny, Johnny, this is Doyoung." Taeil gestured as they took off their coats and hung them up, finding that he really didn't have any words prepared for this meeting.

"Hi Doyoung!" Johnny approached with his hand outstretched. Doyoung took it and smiled—a good sign.

"Hi, Johnny. You're Taeil's friend?"

If possible, Johnny's eyes grew brighter. "Yeah! I'm his f—"

"He's his sexbot."

Taeil turned to Yuta, who looked like he himself hadn't registered what he'd just said.

" _Thank you_ , Yuta." Taeil and Taeyong ended up sighing in unison.

Doyoung's smile slowly disappeared. "Oh. So... _this_  was your solution for your sleep troubles? I guess getting dicked down works."

"In my defense, we got him to cuddle." Taeil continued even when Doyoung stared at him. "It didn't get sexual until... recently." That morning, Taeil recalled. The memory was still very vivid.

There was silence. Taeil waited as he watched the gears turn in Doyoung's head. He found that expression a little funny now.

"I also cook." Johnny broke the silence by adding in, rather unhelpfully, but Taeil only just managed to contain his chuckle.

"So," Doyoung finally began to speak, slowly, processing the information that had been presented to him. "You bought a roommate who doesn't pay rent, basically."

Taeil sighed. "No, that's not—"

Johnny's eyes widened and his eyes snapped from Doyoung to Taeil, worried. "I can do that! I'll pay rent if you need me to!"

"You're not paying rent—"

"I can! I _want_ to!"

" _No_." Taeil really didn't like yelling, so he didn't, but it still made Johnny quiet down enough to listen. Yuta and Doyoung stood there, shocked. "I'm not letting you pay rent."

"Even if I want it? Why not?" The questions were genuine, Johnny wanted to understand where Taeil was coming from and it made explaining almost every situation so much easier when he was so willing to listen.

"Just because you say you want something, doesn't mean someone's going to give it to you. It's not fair of me to make you pay rent when I brought you here in the first place and you didn't have a choice."

"Technically, I brought him here." Taeyong decided to add in, also unhelpful. Taeil ignored it, though he was _so_ proud of his smart mouthed AI friends. He continued.

"I'm not letting you pay rent, and I’d do the same if Yuta and Doyoung stayed here. Plus, you already do way too much for me anyway." Like make food, help him sleep, help him be not... sexually frustrated and just honestly—Johnny helped just by being himself.

Johnny nodded slowly and Taeil was relieved to see the sparkle return to his eyes. "You'd do that because we're your friends?"

"Exactly."

Taeil turned to Doyoung, who in turn, stared at Yuta—who shrugged. Doyoung seemed to take that as a cue to shrug it all off as well.

"Well if Mr. Sexbot cooks then I'm fine. I was promised good food."

"His name is Johnny." Taeyong's voice was a little louder than normal. Taeil could tell he was a little irritated.

Doyoung's eyes widened, surprised. "Oh I was just—I'm sorry, Taeyong. I meant Johnny."

Johnny smiled at him, void of any sort of venom whatsoever, only a dash of playfulness across his features. "Don't worry Mr. Human—Chef Johnny is here!" He turned and padded back into the kitchen, leaving Doyoung to stare after him, blinking.

Taeil laughed and patted Doyoung's shoulder. "Thank you," He whispered, for Doyoung's effort. "Also, he chose a pair of pyjama shorts for himself with apples on them that say apple bottoms. So..." That was to try and explain Johnny in one quick sentence but Taeil found he had a lot more he wanted to say. He left it to that for now, surely Doyoung was feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Taeil turned to Yuta. "You though," He shook his head. "What the fuck?"

"Seriously." He swore he heard Taeyong mutter.

Yuta shrugged. "I panicked! Sorry."

Taeil shook his head again, smiling. "Honestly, I had no idea how else I was going to say it."

"Wait, Yuta knew?" Doyoung scoffed. "I'm offended."

"Don't be, he wasn't supposed to. He invited himself over the day Johnny arrived and he still can't stay away." A light jab that had Yuta chuckling with enough embarrassment colouring his cheeks that it had Taeil's thoughts buzzing curiously.

"Slight problem!" Johnny stepped back out of the kitchen. "We don't have enough ingredients for three people right now."

Taeil sighed, thinking about the grocery bill again. He’d have to budget a few things, he could probably move some money from the entertainment fund. He didn’t use it all that much—his friends were entertainment enough for him.

“Alright, we’ll go down to the store—the rest of you—” He looked at the main control where Taeyong’s AI chip resided since he didn’t have a face to look at—just to make a point, then at Doyoung. “Play nice.”

Taeil and Johnny put on their coats and headed out to the store.

“You look nice in your work clothes.” Johnny commented, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Oh, thank you.” Taeil opened the door to the convenience store and for a brief second, made eye contact with Kun at the register. “Go ahead and get what you need, I’m going to… I’m going to talk to Kun.”

“Okay!” Johnny smiled, heading to the food aisles. Taeil took a deep breath and headed to the register, leaning on the counter. “Hey…”

Kun stared at him. “Hey…”

There was an awkward silence.

Kun licked his lips. “So… Johnny told you, right?”

“Yup.” Taeil nodded. “Ten told you?”

Kun stared at the register screen even though he wasn’t scanning anything through. “Yup.”

God, the conversation was painful but Taeil had a question that had been floating in his mind for a while.

“Can I ask you something?” He waited until Kun finally looked at him before continuing. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to but… what made you do it?”

Kun’s eyes flicked behind Taeil, who assumed he was glancing at Ten somewhere in the store. Even at the register he could hear both Johnny and Ten chatting to each other.

Kun took a deep breath and a moment to gather his words. Taeil expected him to not answer, after all, it was a very personal question, but Kun seemed like he wanted to share, at least a little bit. It suddenly occurred to Taeil that he might be the first person Kun’s actually told.

“It’s sort of a long story but the basics—I needed an employee and I didn’t have enough to actually hire one so…” Kun reddened, a little embarrassed. “Someone was… selling him second-hand— _god_ I hate saying it like that but… a fully functioning android for almost nothing? From a business standpoint that’s like… amazing. And then I met him and realized there’s so much— _so_ much more.”

“Do you pay him?” Kun’s problem compared to Taeil’s had its similarities, but was also quite different.

“No, not like—not like that. It’s… It’s a partnership now, he’s not my employee. We work for both of us.”

It reminded Taeil of a Mom and Pop shop—most of which were hard to come by in their day and age.

The real question he’d been wanting to ask was burning at the back of his mind. He decided he might as well just ask. “And when did it become… _more?_ ”

Kun seemed to burn an even brighter shade of red. “I didn’t think it was that obvious.” He scratched the back of his neck when Taeil unsuccessfully tried to conceal his snort. “I don’t know really, it just kind of… did? We got to know each other and it just progressed that way. It didn’t become serious until we decided to share the business and that was when it really—” Kun’s hand opened, mimicking an explosion.

Ten’s laughter could be heard somewhere in the store and Kun’s blush eased, eyes going soft. “I know it’s harder for some people to understand, but they’re so much more than just hardware and software when they’re able to come into their own like the way Ten has—and the way Johnny is, I’m assuming.”

Taeil nodded, leaning his elbow on the counter and resting his chin in the palm of his hand. “You know, there’s a lot of philosophers and cognitive scientists who describe the physical human brain as hardware and our mental processes as software.”

Kun cracked a small smile, peering at Taeil rather curiously. “Hm, I didn’t know that.”

“Did you want to come over for dinner tonight? I have some friends over. Johnny’s cooking.” Taeil asked rather suddenly and Kun blinked in surprise.

“I— _oh_ —uh, sure? Is it okay if it’s kind of late? We still have some hours before the store’s set to close.”

“Of course. Hey, Johnny?” Taeil turned to see Johnny and Ten approaching with a basket full of ingredients. “Will that be enough for two more people?”

Johnny nodded. “Yeah, definitely. Who’s joining us?”

“Is it us?” Ten’s voice raised, excited. “Oh, please tell me it’s us!”

Kun chuckled and Taeil could hear the fondness in his voice. “Dinner at Taeil and Johnny’s tonight!”

Ten cheered and Johnny’s lips spread into a wide grin. Ten helped put their things through the register, eager to get them on their way even after Kun had informed him it would still be a couple of hours until they could go.

“We’ll see you then!” Taeil and Johnny waved as they left the store, each holding a bag.

“That was nice of you,” Johnny practically skipped during their way home. “What made you decide to do that?”

Taeil shrugged. “There’s no shame in having more friends.”

Johnny beamed at him. Taeil’s heart moved. Not quite a flutter but not quite anything else. “I like having friends.” The android’s statement gave Taeil the reassurance that he was doing something right.

 

 

 

 

 

Kun and Ten arrived at Taeil’s apartment in awe—and pleasantly surprised when they were greeted by Taeyong when they entered.

“A Home!” Ten squealed. “I didn’t know you had a Home, Taeil! Hi! I’m Ten!”

Taeyong, flustered at being fawned over, introduced himself. Kun had seemed nervous when he’d walked through the door, but something about Taeyong comforted him, his tight-lipped smile relaxing into a grin.

Taeyong led the introductions for Doyoung (Yuta already knew the convenience store couple—using it as his grocery store often as well). Taeil was surprised when his Home had no snark in his tone, though he did notice the absence of Ten’s label as an android during the introduction. He knew Taeyong well enough to see that he was experimenting, putting one of his hypothesis to the test. What that hypothesis was—Taeil had no idea, but he was curious to see how it would play out.

Dinner was already prepped and ready—they’d just been waiting for Kun and Ten to show up, so with the same enthusiasm as a chef unveiling his first restaurant’s menu, Johnny presented his mix of hotpot in the middle of the table. Taeil hadn’t ever had that many people over at his place before, so Johnny had decided to scrap his initial plan for dinner and put together a large array of ingredients for hotpot—he’d said that Taeyong had once told him it was a good bonding experience food for people.

Taeil couldn’t have agreed more—when Taeyong had turned on the news during dinner out of habit, Taeil had only heard the first few words of “Reports of a missing maidbot have garnered interest after—” before he asked him to turn it off, stating they didn’t need entertainment with all these guests. Taeyong had been more than happy to.

“Oh, Kun watches the news all the time too, why are you both so boring?” Ten had chided them. Kun smiled, embarrassed while Taeil chuckled.

“It’s not boring!” Taeyong—who liked watching the news just as much—argued. “It’s informative!”

“Oh please, don’t tell me you watch documentaries too!”

Kun, who’d been sitting beside Taeil, leaned over. “Ten is learning a whole new language just to use it to tease me.” Taeil chuckled again, interested at the new dynamic being revealed to him. Fiesty, honest Ten. He and Johnny were similar in terms of how friends were, enough to be compatible. But down to the core, Ten and Johnny were different. It helped solidify the lines between something being an _android thing_ and something being a _Johnny thing_. Taeil now wondered how a Johnny thing—his humour and love for puns, for example—became a Johnny thing. Programmed? Or was it just there? Was it the shows Taeil had exposed him to? Or was it an innate part of his personality?

Yuta’s words of _“Don’t get into that nature versus nurture shit with me”_ echoed in his head. Perhaps he’d never figure out the answer if humankind couldn’t really figure out an answer themselves. Perhaps he might be okay with that too.

“Documentaries are informative too—you just have to take bias into account.” Doyoung spoke up.

Ten narrowed his eyes at him before shoving a lettuce wrap into his mouth. Even if the androids didn’t need to eat, they still enjoyed it along with everyone. “You seemed like the boring type to me.” Ten said after swallowing. “Only Johnny and Yuta are the interesting ones here. Yes, I’m including you, Kun.”

Johnny beamed and held his hand up to Yuta, who reciprocated and gave him a high five. Taeil was perfectly content with sitting back and watching them interact at his table.

Doyoung sputtered his defense while Kun and Taeyong joined him, though the others weren’t listening—too caught up in discussing their favourite animes.

Taeil had known these people for a while, but they’d never come together quite like this before. His apartment had never felt so full of life and laughter—it filled him with joy and he finally recognized how lonely he’d really been before all of this.

There was one fresh face in the middle of all of them, the one that brought them together. Taeil was pretty sure it all came down to Johnny’s doing anyway, for all of them to get to this moment. It seemed that he ended up bringing more into Taeil’s life than just physical touch.

The end of the night came much too quickly and Kun practically had to pull Ten away with a kiss on his cheek, reminding him they had to reopen the store early in the morning the next day. They didn’t leave without a thanks and a promise that they would all do this again.

“Do Kun and Ten know that Johnny’s a ‘bot?” Doyoung asked not long after the couple had departed.

Taeil hummed. “Ten’s a ‘bot too.”

Both Doyoung and Yuta stared at him. “What?”

Yuta’s gaze turned to the wall, blank, probably lost in thought, while Doyoung continued to stare in disbelief. “But—they—he—”

“Too many thoughts of yours being challenged today, Doyoung?” Taeyong called out, despite their mini alliance earlier.

Doyoung sighed. “I’ll be honest, yeah. But I want to make this clear—Taeyong—I’ve never been opposed to having my mind changed or my opinion challenged. Not that it’s going to happen in one night, so don’t get smug on me.”

“Doyoung’s allowed his own opinion based on his own experiences, Taeyong, just like you,” Taeil pitched in. “He’s never been mean to you, has he?”

“No.” Taeyong mumbled.

Doyoung’s shoulders relaxed, relieved. “I’m sorry if I have, in any way. This is new for me.”

“Something tells me that this isn’t how discussions like this normally go.” Johnny added in and Taeil chuckled.

“There’s usually a lot more righteous arguing and defending of one’s opinion. Like the documentary debate earlier.”

Doyoung sighed again, sinking into the couch in the living room. “I’m too eternally tired to fight about anything else.”

It wasn’t long before both Doyoung and Yuta were bidding their farewells for the night, after everything was cleaned up of course.

“You know I’m not judging you, right?” Doyoung whispered to Taeil on his way out. “I don’t want to be the reason you decide to not do something you want to do.”

Taeil patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about me, okay?” If anything, it would be because of his own self-prevention measures.

Taeil and Johnny headed straight to bed once everyone was gone. He stared at Johnny’s protruding collarbones after crawling into bed—the android having made a point not to wear a shirt that night for whatever reason that Taeil didn’t want to ask about.

They adjusted to their usual cuddling position but Taeil didn’t close his eyes just yet and Johnny noticed.

“Can I ask you something?” Johnny took the opportunity to speak.

Taeil nodded, unable to tear his gaze from Johnny’s skin. It was really nice.

“Are you still okay with what we did this morning?”

It definitely felt like a lifetime ago since it had happened, since Taeil had let himself want and Johnny had given it to him. His eyes flicked up to look Johnny in the eyes. He could see the worry reflected in them and there was slight crease between Johnny’s brows.

Taeil nodded. “Yeah. Are you?”

Johnny’s lips eased into a smile, wiping the worry away. “Yeah. Just wanted to make sure.”

“Are you okay with doing it… again… sometime?” Taeil wouldn’t describe himself as someone that was easily flustered but he could feel the heat rising in his cheeks as Johnny chuckled low and pulled him a little closer.

“I’d like that.”

Taeil smiled and finally closed his eyes. It had been a long day. A good day, but a long one.

“Can I ask one last question?”

Taeil hummed, eyes still closed. “Go ahead.”

“Is it okay if I sleep naked?”

For some reason, Taeil burst into laughter. “I’ve given you too much power.” He joked. He didn’t say no.

Johnny shed his remaining clothes.

 

 

 

 

  
“What would you think if I grew my hair out?”

Taeil paused, teacup full of his morning green tea pressed to his lips. “You can do that?”

Johnny nodded, taking a sip of his own tea. “Yeah! I might do it, just to see. I don’t think I’ll go as wild and untamed as Yuta’s though.”

“I wonder if your fingers would get caught in a knot if you ran them through his hair.” Taeyong wondered aloud, though Taeil figured he probably meant to keep the thought to himself.

“Do you… want me to try?” Taeil offered, though he was hesitant. It would probably be weird if he did that and a little weirder if he asked Yuta if he could do it for Taeyong.

“ _No!_ No, I was just… wondering.”

There was a knock at the door and it immediately swung open with a determined looking Yuta marching in.

“Speak of the devil.” Taeil chuckled.

“Hello!” Yuta announced and pointed toward Johnny. “I’m here on a mission! To take Mr. John Suh out on this fine Saturday!”

They both stared at him.

Yuta continued pointing at Johnny. “You, me. Let’s go.”

Johnny turned to look at Taeil, who shrugged. He had no idea what Yuta was doing, but it was still rather amusing.

It was Taeyong who spoke first. “Are you asking him on a date?”

“Friend-date,” Yuta squirmed a little bit. “If he wants to, of course.”

Johnny’s face slowly lit up as he put down his finished tea. “I’d love to go on a date with you Yuta! Let me go get ready!”

“Friend-date!” Yuta yelled after him as Johnny sped up the stairs to the bedroom, two steps at a time.

Taeil narrowed his eyes at his friend, playfully suspicious, trying to figure out what he was doing. Yuta gave him no hint, so Taeil just gave up and decided to ask. “What are you doing?”

Yuta shrugged, pretending like he didn’t have an alternative goal in mind. It didn’t last long though. “I just figured,” He voice got lower, closer to a whisper, “If you think you’re gonna all in love with him—I might as well get to know my future best friend-in-law, you know?”

“Oh, Yuta,” Taeil was touched. He pulled Yuta into a one armed hug, still having his teacup in his hand. “Thank you for that. I think he’ll surprise you.”

“I promise I won’t fall in love too.” Yuta joked, though Taeil noted his quick side glance to the wall.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did.” Yuta pushed Taeil lightly, careful of the tea.

“I’m ready for our date!” Johnny announced when he entered the room again, ready to go.

“It’s a friend-date!”

Johnny ignored him. “Where are you taking me?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Oh, a _surprise_ date?! Yuta, you shouldn’t have!”

Taeil could tell Johnny was having way too much fun with that, so he bid Yuta good luck as they headed out the door. Johnny took an extra moment to wave goodbye to Taeil.

For the first time in weeks, Taeil stood by himself in a physically empty apartment. He still had Taeyong’s company of course, though he was pretty uncharacteristically quiet.

Taeil took the time and silence to finish his tea and rinse out the cup before asking about it. “What’re you thinking about?”

“A lot of things.” Taeyong sighed. It was the first time Taeil had ever heard him sound so troubled.

“Do you wanna talk about it? It’s been awhile.” It had been the three of them for some time now. It was easy to forget the presence of someone who wasn’t physically there, though Taeil always tried his hardest to remember but he’d had many other things on his mind lately, like his attraction to the ‘bot taking most of his attention.

“Did you really say what Yuta said you did? That you might fall in love with Johnny?”

Taeil figured he must have heard, there wasn’t anything Taeyong couldn’t hear in the apartment. “Yeah, I think I probably will. Did you think I would when you chose him?”

“No, it hadn’t actually occurred to me that a human could… love a machine like it could love another human.”

“Taeyong, you know the movies simplify and romanticize love, _ironically_ , right? It really is more complex than they make it seem. There’s just different… challenges when it comes to a machine.”

“What kind?”

Taeil sat himself down at the table and properly looked at the blue ring emanating from one of the tiles in the wall. It was at least one other physicality to Taeyong he could look at, other than the main console. “I don’t have to think about things like ‘ _do all ‘bots do this because of programming or is it just him’_ with another human. Though that might make me a hypocrite still, because I told Kun that there are some philosophers and such that described the physical brain as hardware and our mental processes as software. Humans could be programmed too that way, so then I’m just using it as an excuse to prevent myself from falling too deep as well.”

He could hear the pout in Taeyong’s tone. “I don’t like complicated problems with no right answer.”

“Welcome to philosophy. But love can be simple too sometimes, like wanting to make someone smile, wanting to be there for them, just being happy they exist. It doesn’t all have to be complicated all the time.” Taeil chuckled to himself. “I should listen to my own words more often.”

The blue circle flashed once, twice, and Taeil knew Taeyong was observing him, going through his data. “You’re scared?” He finally asked after a long moment. “You’re scared of falling in love with Johnny?”

Taeil nodded. “I think because the road is so different, I can’t model it after anything else I’ve experienced. All of our challenges will be different but—after seeing Kun and Ten… it’s a little less scary, knowing someone’s already figured out their own way.”

Taeyong took a long moment to think again. “Does Kun love Ten?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t ask, but that’s what it seems like.” Taeil shot the question back. “Does Ten love Kun?”

“He displayed a pattern of behaviour that was different towards the rest of you than to Kun. Based on that and what I know of human love… I’d say yes.”

Taeil wasn’t exactly sure who the conversation was for—if it was for him or Taeyong, but it seemed to help them both out in different ways. It eased Taeil’s fear a little and Taeyong—well he wasn’t sure what it did for Taeyong yet, other than making the AI ponder for a long while. He didn’t speak up again until after Taeil had lunch (and had just texted Yuta and forced him to text back to confirm that both he and Johnny were still alive.)

“Do you think someone could ever love me?”

Taeil dropped his phone on the floor. He bent down slowly to pick it up, using the time to carefully think out his answer. His first instinct was to say _‘of course,_ I _love you, Taeyong’_ because, well—he did. With no terrifying thoughts to think him out of it, Taeil loved Taeyong like family, but he couldn’t just say it after he’d confessed to being scared of loving a machine, it felt hollow and that wasn’t something that Taeyong needed. He also had the inkling that familial love wasn’t the kind of love Taeyong was wishing for.

“There are all sorts of love, Yongie, and I think—no matter what form of love it is, they’re all powerful enough that anything is possible.”

The blue circle that glowed on the wall flashed once in acknowledgement before disappearing. Taeyong was taking time to think about their conversation, so Taeil let him be and busied himself around the apartment. It had been a long time since he’d been alone like that. Not lonely this time though. That part felt nice.

It was early evening when Johnny and Yuta came back from their date with big bright smiles on their faces and shopping bags over their shoulders.

“So how was your date?” Taeil asked, brows raised.

“Amazing! Yuta is the best boy- _friend_ ever!” Johnny laughed as Yuta shot him a defeated look.

“He’s been saying that all day since I insisted it was a friend-date. I dug my own hole.” But Yuta had a fond smile spread over his lips that had Taeil grinning too because Johnny’s charms had definitely worked on his friend.

“Yuta brought me to this anime cafe, so we ate and watched anime—they had every show on the planet Taeil, we spent way too much time trying to decide and then we just ended up watching a show we’ve already watched before.” Johnny was too excited to contain himself, practically buzzing in front of Taeil, eager to tell him about his new experience. “It was really fun! You should come next time, but anyways—I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?”

Taeil turned to Yuta, alarmed. Yuta only laughed, which suggested they had an inside joke and even the thought of that made Taeil feel lighter. He was glad they were getting along.

“What kind of bad news? How do you even get bad news when you have a good day?”

“The bad news is…” Johnny looked remorseful for about a split second. “I like coffee better than green tea. I’m sorry, but coffee is—as the humans say— _God_.”

Taeil’s hand slowly reached up to rest on his own chest, trying to look as crestfallen as possible despite his desire to laugh. “I’m heartbroken,” He turned to Yuta. “What did you _do_ to him?!”

“I showed him the light,” Yuta shrugged, grinning. “You’re welcome.”

Unable to hold it in any longer, Taeil smiled again at Johnny. “What’s the good news?”

“Oh!” Johnny reached into his shopping bag and pulled out a stuffed bear plushie that Taeil thought looked familiar. “I got this for our bed! I thought it was cute.”

Taeil wasn’t sure what got to him the most, the fact that Johnny had called it _their_ bed or that he finally recognized the bear plushie as the one Johnny had made fun of him with weeks ago.

“It’s…very cute.” His chest tightened and he wasn’t sure why.

“I’m gonna go put him up there now!” Johnny was gone in a flash and Taeil felt himself get pulled closer by Yuta.

“You know, after spending a whole day with that guy,” Yuta whispered in his ear, fast, in case Johnny came back down. “I think he might already be in love with you.”

Constricted, Taeil’s chest felt constricted. He shook his head. “How?”

Yuta shrugged. “Intuition, observation. Wait, don’t freak out about it, okay? I know you think he might favour you more because you were the first person he met and spent time with—I just—it’s just the impression I got. You don’t have to think too much about it, but if you’re ever in doubt, remember I said it, okay?”

“Okay,” Taeil’s voice was quiet. He could put it in the back of his brain somewhere for now. It was just too overwhelming right at that moment. “Okay.”

Johnny came back down the stairs from the bedroom with the same bright smile still on his face. “So, what should we have for dinner?”

Taeil found it comforting. He took a deep breath and eased back into a smile. “What do you feel like?”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> u win if u noticed that little easter egg in there
> 
> [ Twitter ](https://twitter.com/jokheiz)
> 
> [ Curious Cat ](https://curiouscat.me/jokheiz)


	5. INPUT LOG 005.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The android let out a deep breath. “I really like it when you touch me…”

There was one thing Taeil knew for certain: there wasn’t anything machine or robotic-like in the way Johnny gripped at his thighs with his fingers and sighed in content before darting his tongue in and out of Taeil’s hole.

Taeil tensed, only because he was _so_ close but Johnny was a god damned tease, slowing down to take his time whenever Taeil was on his way to relief. Taeil would’ve cursed him out but there was no point, Johnny already knew how much he liked it.

He’d learned all the signs already, had Taeil’s lower body practically mapped out and probably memorized. Taeil liked it, he liked it a whole lot, but he often wondered if Johnny liked it even more than he did, because it certainly seemed so.

It almost always happened the same way, Taeil would wake up with a heat at his core and Johnny would relieve him of it. Lately though, it started happening before bed, before he went to sleep. Those were the nights where Taeyong always managed to comment that Taeil had slept well the morning after.

This would be one of those nights, Taeil had pressed his nose into Johnny's collarbones and Johnny slipped the other’s shorts off and lowered himself eagerly. Johnny had soon asked if he could go lower and Taeil hadn’t even processed what that meant before he said yes and was soon biting at the sleeves of his navy sweatshirt to keep himself from groaning.

Taeil arched his back when Johnny slipped in his finger alongside his tongue (after getting permission, of course) and Taeil’s free hand found itself wound up in Johnny’s hair, grip tight.

Johnny moaned and Taeil felt it in his core.

With a lewd slurp that made Taeil shiver, Johnny raised his head up and gazed at him from below, a slight smile on his face as he worked a second finger in. It was hard to look away, Taeil found, addicted to the way Johnny cocked one of his brows when he hit a particularly good spot and Taeil showed it in his face.

Taeil relaxed his grip in Johnny’s hair, only because he thought it was getting too tight, that it might be hurting too much.

“No,” Johnny mumbled, taking his time licking over Taeil’s balls. “Keep holding on please, I like it.”

So Taeil came with both hands wound in Johnny’s hair, grip firm, back arched off the mattress.

When Johnny eased himself back up into his place on the bed, Taeil swallowed the very strong urge to kiss him, to touch over his red swollen lips with his because he made him feel so good. But kissing was dangerous, kissing was another kind of intimate Taeil wasn’t quite ready to come to terms with, so instead, he rubbed at Johnny’s hip with his thumb. “Let me return the favour.” Johnny could physically control when he got hard—it was an option in his programming that he’d turned off, but Taeil wanted it on, he just didn’t know how to say it directly.

Johnny tilted his head, peering down at him curiously. “You don’t need to—I’m here to help _you_ —”

Taeil shushed him, a finger at Johnny’s lips, the only way he would let himself feel how plump they were. “I want to.” It was almost as if he was drunk off of his own orgasm, after what Johnny had made his body feel. Johnny stared at him, eyes wide, surprised, before nodding slowly. “Okay,”

So Taeil took his turn in lowering to where Johnny had just been on the bed, and learned about him in a way he hadn’t allowed himself to yet.

 

 

Taeil didn’t actually need to go down all the way to the first floor to buy food anymore, seeing as he had packed lunches now thanks to Johnny’s obsession with cooking, but he still enjoyed the trip down since he got to stretch his legs and chat a bit with whoever he was eating lunch with. It was just him and Donghyuck today, so they chatted idly while Donghyuck browsed the selection.

“What do you usually get?” Donghyuck pouted while he pondered, looking over the options carefully.

“Just that sandwich there,” Taeil pointed to what used to be part of his regular routine. “Come to think of it though, I never actually checked what was in it.”

“You ate it without knowing what was in it?”

Taeil shrugged. “It tasted good.”

“You’re funny,” Donghyuck grabbed the same sandwich Taeil had been referring to. “But I’ll trust your judgement. Please don’t disappoint me.”

Taeil laughed and held his hands up in surrender. “I’ll try not to.”

Donghyuck paid for his food and they left the cafe, heading to the elevator. They waited for it to arrive from the lower levels to the main floor and made room for whoever was getting out—Taeil only really knew the people on his floor, he had no idea who anyone else was unless Yuta talked about them—and he was about to step in until Donghyuck stopped him.

“Oh hi, Sicheng!” He waved to the man who had just left the elevator, grabbing Taeil by the arm and moving him to the side so others could get inside instead. The elevator doors closed and left without them. “I was wondering when I’d see you!”

Taeil looked the man up and down, noting his casual clothing for an office building. He wondered how Donghyuck knew him, seeing as Taeil didn’t think he’d ever seen him before. Then again, he’d never gone down to any of the other floors other than his own in the few years of working at Neo Tech.

“Hey Donghyuck,” Sicheng had a ghost of a smile on his face and nodded to Donghyuck, then Taeil.

“Oh, this is my mentor, Taeil!” Donghyuck seemed to put together that the older two didn’t know each other. “Taeil, this is my big brother’s boyfriend! He works in IT.”

Taeil blinked. He had no idea Donghyuck had a brother, he’d never mentioned it. “Nice to meet you,” He held his hand out and Sicheng shook it.

“You too. I’ve gotta go run an errand for IT, so I’ll let you guys have your break.” Sicheng was quick to bid them farewell which made sense, Taeil had always heard the people in IT were always stacked with work. The only person he knew of that worked there was Sehun, who always complained about it, which Taeil only knew about through Yuta.

Taeil pressed the call button for the elevator again. “I didn’t know you knew someone here. And I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“Oh? Yeah, Sicheng was a big help in getting me this internship! And have I never mentioned my brother before? Whoopsies. His name is Jaehyun, we’re half-brothers actually.”

Despite all their chatting, Taeil was pretty sure this was the most information Donghyuck had revealed about himself so far. At least the kid was finally opening up. Taeil’s stomach rumbled as they entered the elevator and went back to their floor.

“Did you want to tell me about him? Do you see him a lot?”

Donghyuck’s face seemed to light up. “Yeah, I live with him! He takes care of me. He owns a little bakery that he runs all by himself! Sometimes I help out, but—I kinda suck at baking. Jaehyun says I’m too impatient.”

Taeil hummed, thoughtful. He wondered how Donghyuck’s older brother, Jaehyun, sustained himself in such an era of big chain companies and automation (the actual machines—the one’s that didn’t show signs of consciousness) but perhaps that’s what kept it alive, there wasn’t anything quite like a handmade pastry full of someone’s love and hard work.

“I think you two would get along.” Donghyuck said as they sat down at their regular lunch table, joining Yuta. “I think he’d find you very fascinating.”

“Oh?” Taeil raised a brow while he opened his container of kimchi fried rice that smelled absolutely heavenly. “Like how you find me interesting?”

Donghyuck nodded earnestly and it warmed Taeil’s heart.

“Well, I look forward to meeting him some day.”

Donghyuck smiled and took a bite of his unwrapped sandwich, letting out a little gasp as he chewed. “Oh? this is really good.”

Taeil had never thought the sandwiches were that great, but for the amusement of the intern, he agreed.

 

 

When Taeil got home after work, he was greeted by Johnny sitting at the dining table, a pile of books in front of him.

“Evening!” Johnny brightened at the sight of him. Taeil put his coat away and upon closer inspection, realized they were his old photo albums.

“Hey,” Taeil picked one of the albums up. Johnny had cleary already dusted them all off, so he admired the front cover. “What did you find?”

“I haven’t actually looked through them yet.” When Taeil raised a brow, Johnny turned serious. “You can ask Taeyong, I really didn’t.”

“He didn’t.” Taeyong confirmed with a chuckle. “He definitely thought about it, but he didn’t.”

Taeil smiled. “Why not? I don’t mind.”

“Because I wanted to look through them with you. Yuta gave me glimpses of stories he had of you, so I got really curious and I found these.” Johnny gestured to the albums, his fingers dancing across the covers delicately, as if they were treasure. “But then I realized just looking at them wouldn’t be enough, I wanted to hear you tell the story behind them, if that’s okay.”

“Of course it is.” Taeil sat down next to Johnny. “Gosh, I don’t even know where to start.” It had been so long since he’d looked through them, he didn’t remember which ones were older or more recent.

“Hmm, this one.” Johnny picked one out of the four albums at random and placed it in front of them.

“I shouldn’t be surprised you keep physical album of your photos instead of digital, but it’s still a sight to see.” Taeyong pointed out, because it was way more common to keep all photos digitally. While Taeil did have photos stored digitally as well—mainly scans of the physicals and anything he’d taken with his phone—there was just something nostalgic about using the vintage polaroid camera given to him by his mother on his sixteenth birthday.

“I think as much as the world digitizes, there’ll always be a little bit of demand for the old. Then it becomes cool and people call it retro.”

Johnny snorted and Taeil snapped his head up to look at him. “Are you laughing at me?”

Johnny grinned. “Nope. Let’s see the photos please!”

Taeil however, didn’t want to move on just yet. “Am I not cool to you?”

“Not yet because you haven’t shown me your cool old _retro_ photos!”

Taeil clicked his tongue, feigning offense before finally opening the photo album. He was immediately hit with a wave a memories, all from his first few years of University.

“Oh my god, your hair,” Johnny gasped, fingers on the first photo of Taeil, sitting on his old dorm bed with a guitar in his lap. “It was so long! Is that an undercut? You had an undercut like me? Oh my god.”

Taeil couldn’t help but laugh. “Just wait and see what I did to it later.”

“Is that… Doyoung? Wow, I take back my earlier comment, you guys were apparently _too_ cool.”

He had flipped to a photo of Doyoung and Taeil posing together, decked out in leather jackets, jewelry and wild hair.

“There’s so many pictures of parties. Taeil did you really study?”

“I got the degree, didn’t I?”

More page flips later and Taeil watched Johnny’s jaw drop. He quickly closed it, peeking to see if Taeil had seen it, then gulped. “Your hair was so… _red_ … like fire!”

Johnny’s excitement was getting the better of him—he talked about each photo at rapid speed and Taeil couldn’t even tell him the stories behind them, so he just chuckled instead.

“Is Doyoung matching you with blue hair here? What in the—oh, there’s Yuta! Is that a nose ring? You guys were _rebels_ , huh?”

“A what?” Taeyong suddenly interjected and Taeil could only assume he was zooming in on the photo. Taeil took it out of the plastic and placed it on the table before Johnny could flip it away too quickly.

“His hair hasn’t changed much though.” Taeil noted, also finding it quite amusing that both the AIs in the room were fascinated by the humans’ past ‘ _wilder_ ’ looks.

Johnny continued his eager look through the album. “Wow, you guys performed quite a bit then?”

“Yeah, we were music majors, so we tried to get on stage as much as we could.”

“Was Yuta a music student too?” Taeyong asked.

“Weirdly enough—I don’t actually know what he studied—we went to different schools but hung out at the same bar. I didn’t really become friends with him until we worked at Neo Tech.”

Johnny paused his flip-through and frowned. “How did you end up at Neo Tech if you were a music major? I don’t see those paths correlating…”

“They don’t correlate,” Taeil shrugged. “I needed a job right after I’d graduated to help support my Mom.”

“You couldn’t find anything in music?”

Taeil shook his head. “Nothing that would pay instantly. I needed the money because my Father had passed right after I graduated, so I wanted something stable to be able to send half of everything to my Mom.”

“Oh,” Johnny sucked in his breath, eyes wide, as if he were trying to imagine what Taeil had felt at the time. Taeil didn’t want him to think about it too hard, or get too sad.

“Doyoung was already working at Neo Tech part time so he got me the job and stayed with me, then we picked Yuta up officially into our little… circle, I guess. It’s been a few years since then.”

“I always wondered why you split it with her.” Taeyong’s voice was quiet.

“Is it… sad? To think about him? When things remind you of him?” Johnny, always curious, was careful in the way he asked his questions. Taeil realized that as a relatively new functioning android, Johnny had no experience with death yet.

“Sometimes,” He replied truthfully. “But it also makes me happy, fills me with love. My favourite teacup—”

“The green one!” Johnny knew instantly.

“Yeah, that one—he used to make all sorts of things like that. The guitar in all the pictures was his too, he passed it down to me but I left it with my Mom at home when I moved here.”

Johnny nodded, face full of thought. “I was wondering why you had all the music books but no instruments. I look forward to hearing you play one day.”

In all honesty, Taeil hadn’t felt the urge to pick up the guitar since his school days, but now his fingers itched for it. He’d like to play for Johnny, especially because he knew it would make him smile.

Johnny continued his look through and Taeil told him of the time he smuggled a kitten into his dorm, of the time he had to rescue Doyoung after he fell into the river (they’d both been sober and Taeil had actually be sworn to secrecy about telling anyone about it, but the laughter he, Johnny and Taeyong had shared after he told the story had been worth it) and of the time he’d first come into contact with an android.

“Commercial ones weren’t available yet, but it was still pretty common here in Seoul, not in the small rural countryside town I’m from. He was learning to be a bartender. It was definitely a life-defining moment.”

“Just like when you met me.” Johnny wiggled his shoulders and turned his attention to the next photo.

Taeil stared at him. He said it with so much certainty, so much sureness that he had no idea if Johnny was joking or not.

“Hey, what’s that?” Johnny pointed to Taeil in the photo, sat on a barstool with the guitar in his lap, yet again.

Taeil peered closer at the photo and realized Johnny was pointing at his arm, skin revealed by an old tank top he used to wear all the time when he was younger.

“You have a tattoo?”

Taeil followed Johnny’s gaze to his arm, currently covered up by his usual long sleeve button up he wore to work. It occurred to Taeil then that he either wore that or a long sleeved sweatshirt—even on weekends. Had Johnny really never seen his arms? Taeil guessed he’d just gotten so used to covering up while at work, showing the tattoo of the four bar melody he’d composed hadn’t ever been something on his mind.

“Yeah,” Taeil’s hand subconsciously rubbed where the tattoo was, from his shoulder to his elbow.

It really was quite a big tattoo, had he really not even changed in front of Johnny yet?

Johnny closed his mouth, lips jutting out slightly. Taeil had no idea what he was thinking about. After a lengthy pause, Johnny spoke. “I hope I get to see it one day.”

Taeil struggled with what to respond with. _‘You will_ ’? ‘ _Maybe_ ’? It seemed important to Johnny, as if Taeil showing it to him meant Taeil was comfortable enough with him.

…Was that what it was?

Instead of responding, Taeil got up, heading to the storage closet in the apartment. He knew he still had the old polaroid camera somewhere, letting out an _ah-ha!_ when he found it under a stack of board games he didn’t use anymore. There were way more now-affordable high tech ways to play games with friends.

To check if it still worked, he went back to the dining table and pressed the shutter button, taking a photo of Johnny who had moved onto a different photo album and was absorbed in the photos of sixteen year old Taeil. He blinked in surprise and sat upright at the sudden flash.

“Taeyong, is the film still being sold for these things?” Taeil asked as the picture printed.

“Yeah,” A pause, then, “I just ordered some for you.”

Taeil chuckled. “Thank you, Taeyong.”

He could feel Johnny’s gaze burn into him as Taeil placed the camera on the table, found the album with the most recent pictures and flipped it until the end, sliding the now fully developed photo into the protective pouch.

Taeil turned to smile at him. Johnny opened his mouth, but was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Taeil managed to tear his gaze away from Johnny. “Who is it?”

“It’s Kun and Ten!” Taeyong responded. “Shall I open the door?”

“Please.”

The door opened automatically and in came Kun, container in hand with Ten behind him, waving.

“Uh, hi,” Kun smiled apologetically. “I hope we aren’t interrupting anything, we were just really grateful for dinner the other night, so we wanted to make this for you.”

“He says we, but he made it all.” Ten interjected and Kun rolled his eyes.

Taeil smiled and gestured to the kitchen. “Well, why don’t you eat it with us?” He saw their hesitation, and urged them further. While they had interrupted a moment, Taeil knew it would be an easy one to go back to, and he never turned away friends at his door. “We always like company.”

The was a flash in the room and Taeil turned to Johnny, who had the polaroid camera in his hand, smiling cheekily as it printed out another photo.

Ten gasped. “What’s that?” At the same time that Kun chuckled, “I haven’t seen one of those in a while.”

“You should see some of the photos of Taeil when he was younger.” Johnny teased, but it was what lured Kun and Ten into the apartment for dinner, so Taeil appreciated it.

Several photos later, all taken by Johnny, even during dinner, Taeil spoke to Kun while Johnny excitedly showed Ten the old photos of Taeil.

“Do you mind if I ask you something?” Taeil stood by the window, staring out into the brightly lit city while the sky was dark.

“Go ahead.” Kun stood beside him.

“Does your family know about Ten?”

Kun took a sip of water from the glass in his hand. “They know I have… someone. They don’t know it’s Ten and they don’t know that he’s… him.”

Taeil nodded. “My Mom called me the other day and I didn’t know how to explain it. I have no idea what she thinks of them—androids. I don’t think it’ll be bad just… I want to explain it right.”

“And you still have to figure out what it is you’re trying to explain.”

Kun was incredibly perceptive. Taeil glanced at him and gave him a hesitant smile. “Yeah. That too.”

 

 

  
Johnny was already upstairs getting ready for bed when Taeil put the last of the dishes away from their dinner with Kun and Ten, who’d left with their empty container and happy smiles.

Taeil took note of the emanating blue ring coming from the wall as he shut the cupboard doors. Taeyong wanted to say something, and was thinking very hard about it.

“What’s up?” Taeil decided to encourage him, lest Taeyong think whatever it is wasn’t a big deal.

“I was just…” Taeyong trailed off. Taeil waited patiently for him to continue speaking. “The pictures… I was just thinking… I wish I could be memorialized like that too. Physically.”

Taeil opened his mouth but found that no words came out. It was a heartbreaking feeling, hearing that.

“I know you can see my console and the ring on the wall but… You can’t see a smile on a face or even a face at all. You can’t capture a feeling, or even an—an— _essence_ … I wish… I wish I had one.”

Taeil placed his hand on the wall, next to the blue ring. “I’m sorry.” Those were the only words he could manage to say with confidence. Taeyong deserved more.

“I know. It’s okay.”

With a heavy heart Taeil went upstairs and washed up, his pyjamas already on the counter for him, left by Johnny. Now Taeil was a little self conscious about not having shown Johnny his tattoo, or not even changing in front of him when he’d basically seen… so much of him already. With too much on his mind, he changed in the bathroom anyway, shuffling to the bedroom and plopping down next to Johnny, who still took his request to sleep naked very seriously.

Taeil pressed his nose into Johnny’s shoulder, because he found comfort in it. A physical comfort that someone like Taeyong couldn’t feel, but wanted to so badly. That made him wonder, what did Johnny find physical comfort in? Was it lying with him in bed like this? Did he enjoy it?

Johnny’s warmth was tempting his eyes closed, trying to lure him into slumber but Taeil’s mind fought back, blinking his eyes open every few minutes.

“Something on your mind?” Johnny whispered after witnessing a few struggles.

Taeil hummed. “Yes, but you’re very warm. Did you get warmer?”

“No, I don't think so, I’m just… testing… a few settings.”

That had Taeil a little more awake and more eager to think of other things that made him a little less sad. “Oh? Which ones?”

Johnny looked everywhere but Taeil. “Oh just… some.”

“You don’t want to tell me?”

“I just want to see if I’m right.”

Taeil untucked his nose from Johnny’s shoulder and placed his hands on Johnny’s chest. He was warm, like he’d always been but as Taeil’s hands travelled down, feeling, touching, he found the source of it when he slid his fingers in between Johnny’s thighs.

Johnny yelped. “You’re cold!”

Taeil narrowed his eyes at him, playfully. “You’re thighs are very warm. Much warmer than normal.”

“You’ve taken note of the temperature of my limbs?”

Taeil huffed. “You’ve done the same for mine! I’m just—not as accurate.”

“Yeah but I’m—” Johnny shook his head and broke out into a smile. “—are you trying to figure out what I’ve changed?”

“If I may?”

Johnny nodded, permission.

Taeil slid his hand further down Johnny’s thighs, towards his knees. Still warm, but slightly less so than near his pelvis. When Taeil ran his hand back up, he trailed over a line of goosebumps. He frowned.

“Has your skin… always reacted this way?”

Johnny said nothing. Taeil didn’t realize how hard Johnny was breathing until he placed his other hand back on his chest and felt it move, up and down. Johnny had always had a steady breathing rhythm—seeing as he didn’t actually need to breathe—even when Taeil had brought him to climax during their usual bed activities. Taeil didn’t think Johnny had ever shivered either.

Curious and intrigued, the hand between Johnny’s thighs traced upwards, narrowly avoiding Johnny’s cock but getting so close that Johnny flinched.

The android let out a deep breath. “I really like it when you touch me…”

A thrill went straight through Taeil’s chest. He looked up at Johnny. “You turned off your stabilized settings?”

Johnny nodded. “I wanted to see… you’re always encouraging me to find the things I like and I really wanted to— _feel_ the effect you have on me, on my body. I really like it.”

Taeil knew very little about the inner workings of androids still but what he did know, was that they had stabilized settings. An android wouldn’t get too hot or too cold, because it was stabilized. Wouldn’t feel chills or have a bruise if they got hurt. Taeil had no idea they were able to turn them off and he had no idea the skin would react so… humanely.

And Johnny liked how it felt when Taeil touched his skin.

“Is it okay? Are you okay with me doing this?” Johnny asked, because Taeil hadn’t managed to formulate a proper response yet.

He looked up at Johnny and resisted the urge to kiss him. “More than okay.”

 

 

  
Taeil was already sat at his desk when Donghyuck arrived with Mark and Jeno, who both went and sat with their respective mentors.

“Morning,” Taeil greeted him.

“Morning! I saw a protester outside our building when coming in today, does that usually happen?”

Definitely a new way of being greeted in the morning, Taeil had to think about it. He’d been working too long at the company to keep registering the protesters that would sometimes come in groups, sometimes solo, to protest outside of their building. “Sometimes? I don’t really pay attention to them though. Yuta’s always talking up a storm beside me.” Which was true—Yuta was almost always talking on their way to and from work, if he didn’t—then something was probably wrong.

“I heart that!” Yuta called from a few desks over. “And I know you’re not actually listening to me!”

Taeil chuckled and turned back to Donghyuck, who looked deep in thought.

“Are the androids… _slaves?_ ”

If possible, Taeil felt his heart lurch. Donghyuck must have listened to whatever it was the protester was saying. He supposed… maybe? Under certain circumstances? If they were as conscious as Johnny and Taeyong, but were restricted to simple duties that the cook and butler androids were assigned… Thinking of Johnny and Taeyong being stuck like that made Taeil feel sick, especially knowing how Taeyong felt, how he wanted a body. Perhaps he felt trapped in Taeil’s apartment too. “I think… I think it’s a complicated question.”

Donghyuck shook his head and straightened up, as if he’d just pushed a button and all his thoughts about it were gone. “Ah! Sorry, it’s too early to be thinking like that, huh? Asking those kind of questions. What are we doing today, mentor?”

Donghyuck’s sudden change of demeanor surprised Taeil. He tried to move on like the intern had, but it was always at the back of his mind. He was glad for the change of pace (and perhaps a different subject of conversation) when lunch came around.

“Something’s happening around here,” Yuta was full of gossip, as always. “People are buzzing but no one’s saying anything. My theory? I think we’re gearing up for a new android release. You noticed all the new kind of ordered materials lately, right? If the CEO visits soon, I’m right. Neo Tech CEOs always visit before a release.”

Mark popped his head up from eating his lunch at their table. He and Jungwoo were new additions to their lunch gatherings, seeing as the interns seemed to rarely do anything not together and Jungwoo obviously wanted to be a good mentor. Mark looked at Yuta curiously, absorbed. “The CEO? You mean Lucas Wong is gonna come here? Why here and not the factories where they make the androids?”

Yuta shrugged. “Oh, he’ll visit every Neo Tech office building and factory—it’s what they always do.”

Mark continued asking questions. “Have you ever met Lucas Wong?”

Doyoung shook his head. “None of us have, it’s been a long time since Neo Tech has released anything _new_ new, and Wong became CEO like what, two, three years ago? Right when we started.”

“I’ve seen a glimpse of him, once.” Doyoung raised a brow at Yuta who crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s true! Just a glimpse. The man looks like he’s built to be CEO, he’s hard to miss. He’s just got that aura.”

Doyoung rolled his eyes and packed up his lunch. “Anyways _kiddos_ , I’ve gotta go run an errand, I’ll meet you outside the conference room at one-thirty, okay Jeno?”

Jeno nodded, but Yuta frowned. “Where are you going?”

It was Taeil’s turn to jump in. “He’s going to go buy some treats for Jeno after being in his first meeting today.”

“Spoilsport.” Doyoung muttered before he left. Seeing the small, blushed smile on Jeno’s face was worth it to Taeil.

Fifteen minutes until their lunch was over and Taeil had other things on his mind when his phone chimed.

 

  
**Taeyong [1:00PM]**

You received a package from your Mother! More green tea leaves.

  
**Taeil [1:01PM]**

Yum! Thank you.

 

  
Though Taeil could immediately tell something was off, because Taeyong had never texted him about that before.

 

  
**Taeyong [1:01PM]**

Also, Johnny left the apartment.

 

  
Taeil stared at his phone. Maybe he’d gasped, or inhaled sharply, because he felt someone nudge his elbow.

“Are you okay?” Donghyuck blinked at him, worried.

“Yeah, yeah! I’m fine.” Taeil gave him a quick, hopefully reassuring smile and turned back to his phone, trying to ignore the sinking feeling of dread in his gut.

 

  
**Taeil [1:03PM]**

You couldn’t have lead with that?!

  
**Taeyong [1:03PM]**

I felt like I needed something to soften the blow! I’m sorry!  
I couldn’t lock the door in time before I realized he was leaving.

  
**Taeil [1:05PM]**

No no, don’t lock him in like that  
I told him he could go anywhere

  
**Taeyong [1:06PM]**

But what if he gets lost?? He doesn’t have a phone!!

  
**Taeil [1:09PM]**

We’ll just have to trust him  
Okay?  
But just  
Tell me if he comes back

 

 

Taeil’s mind raced, thinking of where Johnny could’ve gone off to, concerned. But he’d never tell him he couldn’t leave—he’d just been so used to Johnny _not_ leaving that the idea of him getting into trouble with no one to help…

Taeil had had an inkling as to how attached he was getting, but there was no impact quite like being sick with worry as if suddenly being hit by a truck that unloaded all these feelings onto you.

Suffice to say, Taeil found his mind plagued with even more thoughts in the afternoon—of Johnny’s freedom, of why he might leave without saying anything, of why Taeil was feeling the way he felt. He appreciated the effort Donghyuck was taking to make him smile, but Taeil stayed slumped at his desk until it was time to clock out and head home.

Taeyong still hadn’t texted him back.

Which meant Johnny had not returned.

_He’s fine, he’s fine_ , Taeil thought to himself on the way to the subway station. Johnny was smart and he’d been learning the area. He was fine.

“Okay,” Yuta started the moment they got onto the subway. “What the hell is wrong?”

Taeil groaned. “It’s nothing, I’m just overreacting.”

Yuta stared at him, because it really was quite out of character for Taeil to be this affected by something. “It’s obviously not nothing. Does it have to do with Johnny?”

“Yeah he—he left the apartment without saying where he was going and I’m just worried—only because he was so worried about leaving it in the first place, when I told him he could.”

“He’s adventurous, huh? I mean, isn’t this good, this is like—he’s a little more independent now, right?”

Taeil nodded. Talking about it made him feel a little better, but it wasn’t like he could’ve said any of it to Donghyuck. He’d make sure to make it up to him later. “Yeah, I just didn’t realize how hard it was. I want him to make these decisions on his own and be his own person—because he is, but the fact that he could also decide to leave makes me so incredibly… _sad_. I guess I just didn’t realize it because it’s not like Taeyong can leave.” And there he was thinking about that damned protester again, and Taeyong being trapped in his apartment unwillingly.

“This is all just so… _human_ , isn’t it? We don’t ever want someone we love to leave us.”

“I thought I was the one who took the philosophy courses?” Taeil managed to chuckle but it turned into a sigh. He was pointedly ignoring Yuta’s implications. “I feel like a hypocrite.”

Yuta snorted. “Aren’t we all? Besides, what separates you and normal people is that I know for a _fact_ that even if you were sad, you’d be so fucking happy for Johnny if he left because he wanted to. Oh, you’d be over the moon, and you’re gonna be once you see him come back to your apartment and all your worries are washed away, because you know he took that step himself. You’d do the same for Taeyong too, if that was ever possible. I’d be really happy for him too.”

Taeil hummed. Emotions were hard, complicated. But it would be what he did with them—how he chose to behave through them—that was what would define him, in the end. It was okay to feel the way he did, at least for a little bit—he could come to terms with that.

Yuta continued. “You two are just both figuring shit out—existing together—and you’ve always put others before yourself. Honestly, I’m glad Johnny’s there to give you what you need.”

Taeil knew he meant more than just a good night’s sleep and pleasure.

He thanked Yuta when they parted ways to their own apartments and though it was difficult to enter his own, now empty, with only Taeyong to greet him, Taeil didn’t feel as horrible as he did before.

Being worried about Johnny’s safety though—of course he was, it was his first time outside alone! Taeil couldn’t be blamed for that. And there was the whole Taeyong situation too—but he couldn’t do much to help that either.

Taeil made a large pot of green tea—larger than he’d had in a while. Two cups in was when Taeyong began to play music and another cup later was when Taeil began to sing along to it. He wished he had his guitar with him and he decided he really just might have to visit his Mom soon to pick it up (and see her of course, it had been a while) and maybe… Johnny would like to come? Taeil hoped so.

He stood by the window, looking out, thinking. He did a lot of that these days, he found, a lot more than he used to. He’d fallen into a routine, almost machine-like, one would say. Compared to what his life was like when he was younger, when he and Doyoung would pick a random bar to go to, fill in for no-show performers just an hour before a set was supposed to go live—those were the kind of experiences Taeil liked the most. The kind where you could just enjoy the moment.

He enjoyed a lot of moments lately.

Obviously, he did not enjoy the feeling of swallowing town piping hot tea as he ignored the churning of his stomach (for non-tea related reasons), but he tried not to fret and that was all he could do until Johnny returned.

Because eventually, he did return.

Taeil heard the door open first but did not relax until he turned around and saw Johnny standing in the doorway, a plastic bag in hand. It only took one smile from Johnny for relief to wash through Taeil’s body, cleaning out any negative feeling he’d had lingering in his bones.

“Hi!” Johnny beamed at him, holding up the bag. “Dinner’s ready!”

It was then that the overwhelming scent of friend chicken hit Taeil, his stomach growling and mouth beginning to water. He hadn’t noticed he was hungry. Maybe because he’d drank so much liquid instead.

Johnny put the plastic bag onto the kitchen counter and unpacked it, pulling out the carton container of chicken and the pack of beer that came with it. “I hope you don’t mind—I kind of had to use your account to buy this, but I thought it would make up for me disappearing for a little bit. Somebody recommended that this fried chicken place was the best takeout place to go to when I asked them—I hope I didn’t worry you?”

Taeil put his teacup down onto the dining table and approached Johnny, admiring his windswept hair—how his nose was just a little red from the colder night air—and as Taeil got closer he realized he absolutely loved the smell of the outside that still clung onto Johnny and his mauve sweater. It was almost impossible not to wrap his arms around Johnny’s waist and take a deep breath in.

Johnny inhaled with him, maybe because he was surprised—Taeil didn’t do these kind of gestures very often, but he was so relieved to have Johnny in his apartment he couldn’t help it. He lightly pressed his cheek to Johnny’s back before letting go. “Let’s sit on the couch for dinner.”

“I…” Johnny blinked at him. “…okay.”

So they settled on the couch, Johnny on one end and Taeil on the other with their knees touching. They watched the news but it was more background noise than if they’d been farther away at the dining table.

“So… are you going to tell me where you went?” Taeil asked him eventually, because he really was curious.

Johnny shook his head, smiling cheekily. “Nope! It’s a surprise.” He took a sip of beer.

Taeil chuckled, amused. He pretended to shrug it off (he really did want to know) and continued to eat the drumstick in his hand.

Johnny, however, seemed more bothered by this. His leg bounced fervently and he would frequently glance from the television to Taeil, then back to the television. Taeil pretended not to notice, acting too absorbed in his chicken.

“This is really hard,” Johnny muttered. He turned to Taeil, urging for his attention. Taeil turned to him but continued eating. “Okay, I was going to do this a completely different way but I can’t—if I don’t say this now I’ll burst.”

Taeil swallowed at the same time Johnny took a deep breath.

“Moon Taeil, will you go out on a date with me?”

The chicken didn’t make it’s way down.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> johnny: hey will u go out with me  
> taeil: chokes  
> johnny: ...so is that a no?
> 
>  
> 
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	6. INPUT LOG 006.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh. Maybe Taeil had already fallen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting this from the dead because of johnny 24 hour relay cam 9~10am haha thank you

It was only once they were on the subway on their way to work that Yuta began to speak.

“So…” He bit his lip to try and hide his smile. “Did you say yes?”

Taeil stared at him. “Say yes to what?”

“You know…!” Yuta motioned his hands in the air which made Taeil even more confused.

“I don’t? I literally don’t know what you’re talking about?”

Yuta sighed as the subway stopped at their station and they got off, annoyed, as if Taeil was the one who wasn’t making sense. “Johnny’s question! He asked you on a date, didn’t he?”

“I— _you_ —how was I supposed to get that from _‘did you say yes’_? And how did you even know?”

“Where do you think he got the idea?” Yuta’s puffed his chest out. “When you told me he disappeared I had a feeling he had gone location scouting. Also you should tell Taeyong he shouldn’t be mad at me for not telling him because it wasn’t my secret to tell!”

 They approached their work building and Taeil only had a moment to notice the excess amount of cars and people outside of it before he answered Yuta.

“Well it would’ve been nice to not worry to death about him if we knew what he was doing!” Taeil sighed. Yuta was laughing and not taking the conversation seriously at all. There was one thing he observed, though. “Do you and Taeyong talk often?”

“Yeah, sometimes we even call. He got mad when he told me why Johnny had gone out and I already knew, and he hasn’t texted me back since. I can’t believe I’m getting ghosted by an AI.” They headed into the building and took the elevator to their floor.

“I can believe it.” Taeil sniffed and Yuta smacked his arm.

“Anyways, you said yes, right? Please tell me you did.”

Taeil rolled his eyes, pretending to be nonchalant even though thinking about it made his heart thump. “I did say yes, okay? Stop pestering me.”

“Said yes to what?” Doyoung popped up beside Taeil the moment they stepped off the elevator, nearly startling him out of his skin.

“Jesus, don’t do that—and I said yes to a date.” Taeil wondered why his friends pestered him so much, and briefly considered only hanging out with Donghyuck for the rest of his life.

Doyoung raised his brows. “A date? With _who_ —oh. With Johnny?”

Taeil nodded. If Doyoung didn’t approve or was even slightly disgusted—he didn’t show it at all. He simply looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging it off.

“You do you, man. Anyways, there’s something you’ll want to see, especially Yuta.”

Without another word, Doyoung walked past their desks and to the other side of the floor. Taeil looked at Yuta, who shrugged at him and they followed.

There was a group of people standing by a set of windows that went from the ceiling to the floor. Taeil recognized the interns as part of the crowd, so he sidled next to Donghyuck and looked down.

Their floor wasn’t too high up, so they could just make out the figures in the back courtyard outside of the building, filled with people in black suits (not uncommon for an office workplace) but there was a figure who stood out among the rest, taller, who held himself with an air of authority.

“Holy shit,” Yuta breathed. He’d squished himself next to Taeil. “Lucas Wong is _already here_?” He looked to Doyoung, who was also watching the CEO with interest. “We didn’t even get a notice? Don’t they usually announce these things?”

“Yeah, every department director is running around like chickens trying to get their shit together. Except Kyungsoo, of course. I don’t think he’s ever been frantic in his life.”

“I don’t think he’s shown any kind of emotion ever.”

“I will show you an unpleasant one if you all continue to stand there all day, gawking.” Kyungsoo’s voice sent a shiver down Taeil’s spine, who immediately backed away from the window. The rest of their co-workers slowly dispersed, sheepishly returning to their desks. Kyungsoo clicked his tongue and walked away.

Yuta, ever the brave soul, peeked out at the window again and Taeil followed, just because he was curious. Donghyuck had not moved or said anything the entirety of the time they were there.

Even from the height they were at, Taeil could see that Lucas Wong’s hair was perfectly coiffed, wearing a suit without so much as speck of dirt on it and an easily handsome face that made for a dangerously good businessman. Taeil watched Lucas Wong look up at the sky, then at the building, seemingly right at them.

Yuta gasped and stepped away from the window. “You know the feeling of being at an aquarium and watching the octopus or something—and it just stares right at you? And you feel like it might be plotting your death or demise?”

Doyoung—who’s curiosity had also gotten the better of him and caused him to stay despite their boss’ warning—snorted. “You think the CEO of the number one android manufacturer in the world is out to kill _you_ , Nakamoto Yuta, a simple worker bee in this hive of thousands?”

“No,” Yuta grunted. He’d attracted the attention of Mark and Jungwoo, who stood around him alongside the others, listening curiously. “I was just describing the feeling. I feel like he just looked right up at me.”

“He probably couldn’t see anything anyway,” Mark added in, much to Yuta’s disdain and Doyoung’s delight. “I mean, who looks up at the sky and then to a reflective window without sunglasses?”

“I said it was just a feeling!”

Taeil could hear Doyoung’s laughter all the way back to their desks.

He sat down and looked to Donghyuck beside him. His silence was a little unnerving. “What do you think?”

Donghyuck raised a brow. “About? If Yuta really thinks he saw the CEO look up at him?”

“Just in general. What did you think when you saw him?”

Donghyuck opened his mouth then closed it again. Taeil watched him think, before a small smile spread over the intern’s face. “That I’m taller than him from up here.”

Taeil laughed. He shouldn’t have expected anything different.

 

 

 

 

“Taeyong?”

“Hmm?”

“What’s this I hear about you being mad at Yuta?”

Taeil ignored Johnny’s chuckling along with Ten’s as they both adhered to Kun’s cooking instructions. 

“He just—it would have been nice to not have to worry when Johnny was gone!”

Taeil laughed. “I gave him that same argument this morning. Text him later though, okay? I think he feels bad.” Taeil had definitely noticed the amount of times Yuta had looked at his phone over the course of the day and sighed in disappointment. Taeil could only assume he was waiting for Taeyong to talk to him.

“I’ll think about it.”

Kun snickered from where he stir-fried some vegetables. He’d left Johnny and Ten in charge of boiling the water and cooking the noodles. “They’re gonna be the end of each other.”

Taeil nodded in agreement. “And I’m gonna be stuck right in the middle of it, probably.”

“Oh my god— _Ten!_ ”

Kun’s laughter was cut short by a blood curdling shriek from Ten and Johnny screaming his name. Both Taeil and Kun abandoned their own cooking to rush over the few steps to the stove, where Ten clutched his hand and Johnny was covering it with a dish towel.

“It’s okay, I’m okay,” Ten panted before Taeil could even register what was going on. “I turned my pain receptors off—I’m okay.”

“What the hell happened?” Taeil looked at Johnny, who let go of Ten so Kun could take his place.

“Ten just—his hand just went straight into the pot!”

“I was reaching for the wooden spoon to stir the noodles,” Ten only had eyes for Kun, insisting to the best of his ability. “I missed it—clumsy me—I’m okay, Kun. I can’t feel any pain, okay?”

“Okay,” His back was to Taeil but Taeil could hear the emotion caught in Kun’s throat. “Okay. Taeil, do you have any bandages? Let’s at least get this wrapped up.”

“Yeah, in the closet over there. Johnny, you go get the first aid kit and I’ll make sure the kitchen doesn’t burn down, okay?”

Johnny nodded, eyes wide with concern for his friend as he scurried towards the closet Taeil was referring to.

Taeil emptied the boiling water into the sink—regretfully throwing out the noodles that were in the middle of cooking. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to eat them after Ten burned himself in the water. He had some leftover rice still so that would suffice with their vegetables instead for the meal. He didn’t think any of them could stomach noodles after that anyway.

Kun got Ten’s hand wrapped up and they continued on as normal as they possibly could. Ten acted like it never happened and so did Kun, so it was the only option Taeil felt like he had. If Ten said he was okay, then Taeil would believe him. Johnny could be clumsy too, it wasn’t like burning yourself while cooking was something out of the ordinary.

Though he couldn’t help but notice Kun’s worry seemed to etch onto his face and not leave until dinner was done and the two had left for home.

It was much easier for it to slip Taeil’s mind though, once they headed to bed and Taeil sank into Johnny’s warm embrace.

 

 

 

 

Taeil lumbered down the stairs after his shower in the morning and blinked when he reached the bottom and looked into the dining room, where Yuta was sitting at the table in his clothes for work later, mug in hand.

“Uh,” Taeil cleared his throat as he approached. “Morning?”

“Hey,” Yuta smiled at him, took a sip from his mug (coffee, from what Taeil could smell, probably from his own apartment) and swiped a finger on his tablet to turn the page of whatever book he was reading. “Morning. Sleep well?”

“Yeah,” Taeil turned the kettle on and got out his usual teacup and green tea. “Does your coffee taste better in my apartment or something?”

“Oh, Taeyong invited me over for breakfast! You got eggs? I ran out the other day.”

“We do,” Taeyong was the one who replied. “And I only invited him because he said he’d apologize.”

“I said sorry when I got here! Stop making it sound like I haven’t. I’m sorry.”

Taeyong laughed. “I know, I just wanted to hear you say it again. And breakfast is my sorry.”

Taeil was pretty sure breakfast was on him, not on Taeyong seeing as Taeyong couldn’t really make it for Yuta and he hadn't even paid for the groceries. He couldn't even eat it with him, but Taeil held his tongue. He didn’t think he could ever be awake enough to really register what was going on at the moment.

“Taeyong, tell Johnny to put on a pair of pants before he gets down here.” Taeil ended up saying while he poured the hot water into his cup. He turned to Yuta as he waited for his tea to brew. “I didn’t know you could even exist as a human this early.”

Yuta shrugged. “I was promised eggs.”

Footsteps coming down the stairs announced Johnny’s presence and he shuffled by Taeil to grab his own teacup, but not before Taeil felt the brush of fingers on his hip—soft—and gone too quickly.

“Somebody’s grumpy they had to put on pants.” Yuta snorted into his mug. Taeil thought Yuta should be thankful Johnny took Taeyong’s warning seriously—all he had on were sweatpants and nothing else. Johnny probably would have either come down naked, or in his favourite pair of shorts with the apple joke on the butt. If it had not been a work day, Taeil probably would have been the same, especially since they had gotten up to… _things_ , right after waking up that morning. Yuta must not have heard if he was okay with being in the room with the two of them at the moment.

“Nobody likes pants in the morning.” Johnny arranged his green tea leaves in his cup (he’d fallen in love with coffee but his first drink of the day was still green tea, with Taeil. Mostly because Taeil didn't have a coffee maker,) and poured the rest of the water from the kettle.

“I can confirm, not a lot of pants seemed to be worn around here.” Taeyong attested. Taeil laughed and got to working on their breakfast—a quick but good meal right before they would leave for work. He made Yuta’s breakfast first (since he waited so patiently) and started making his own when Johnny sidled up beside him, the hint of a mischievous smile on his face.

“Our date is tomorrow.”

Taeil smiled. “It is.” He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t dying of curiosity, but Johnny had done a really good job at keeping the actual details of the date under wraps.

“And we’re pretty intimate already,”

Taeil could hear Yuta’s fork slowly scrape across his plate. Whether he was listening or not, Taeil couldn’t be sure, but he let Johnny continue.

“So I was wondering if penetrative sex was something you were interested in at all? Not that we need to—you know I just like to make sure.”

“Oh my god—” There was a clatter on the table and Taeil turned around to see Yuta getting up and walking towards the door. “I don’t want to hear this—you did that on purpose—I’m gonna go throw up now. See you before work, unless I can’t scrub my brain out in the next fifteen minutes.”

Taeil put his ready-to-eat eggs on his plate when the door shut behind Yuta, slipping the pan into the sink. “Do you enjoy traumatizing him?”

Johnny hummed. “I didn’t get to fully enjoy or understand it the first time we met. This is revenge for making me put on pants. Sorry Taeyong.”

Taeyong sighed. “It’s okay, it’s still funny.”

Taeil sat at the table and started to eat his breakfast and Johnny sat across from him, like always.

“It was a serious question, though. We don’t have enough time to talk about it before you go to work but…just so you have time to think about it.”

Taeil supposed the conversation was going to come up sooner or later, especially with someone as open as Johnny. Coming to the understanding of just how intimate they were going to get seemed important though, especially since yes, they were going on a date but Taeil still hadn’t decided just what he was going to do about this… attachment, this _feeling_ that he knew exactly was going to happen to him if he let this continue.

Maybe he wanted it to, maybe that was why he said yes to the date.

Taeil chewed thoughtfully. He swallowed, carefully looking at Johnny who stared at him. “Short answer is yes, but I have a feeling you have a lot of stuff to say, so we’ll talk about it after work.”

Johnny smiled and it warmed Taeil, like it always did.

Maybe that was why he said yes. Maybe that was why he found he was okay with falling in love with Johnny.

 

 

 

 

  
Work passed by quickly enough, probably because Taeil wasn’t able to be distracted since the CEO being at their building meant that everybody was adamant about looking as productive as possible, so Taeil and Donghyuck were given assignment after assignment until they were finally able to clock out and go home.

“So, are you gonna ask me if I said yes?” Taeil nudged Yuta on the subway ride home. Yuta stared at him, blank, until he finally understood and grimaced.

“I don’t want to know—I don’t want to know! Not that it’s bad or I don’t approve but you know, I’ve seen the guy’s—” His voice went quiet, trying not to disturb the other passengers. “—I’ve seen him _naked_ , Taeil. I’ve seen you half naked from our school days. I don’t need the easy imagery.”

Taeil nodded, understanding. He was still going to have some fun with it though. “I said yes.”

“I DON’T NEED THE IMAGERY, MOON TAEIL!”

 

 

 

 

  
Johnny led Taeil to the couch, telling him to get comfortable, which meant that he had a lot to say and apparently this conversation was going to be even longer than Taeil had anticipated. They sat on each side, facing each other.

“I just have to say some things for legal reasons. Also because I should’ve said them before we got intimate but I may have… gotten ahead of myself.” Johnny chuckled a little sheepishly. “So first of all, I can’t retain or spread diseases, so if in the case of either of us being sexual with anyone who does—I cannot pass it to you and you can’t pass it to me, but you can pass it to another human.”

Taeil nodded in acknowledgment, though he didn’t think either of them would be getting intimate with anyone else any time soon.

“I also, as you know, produce sperm, but I cannot get anyone pregnant and I cannot become pregnant.” Taeil chuckled and Johnny continued with a smile. “Not that we have that issue—I just have to cover it. Legal reasons, so Neo Tech can’t be sued. Figured it was better to say now than in a heated moment.”

That reminded Taeil that technically, Johnny was from the company he worked for, which was a little weird to think about, but he brushed it off pretty easily.

“Obviously we don’t have to establish anything yet with how the sex will go—but I’ve kind of—kind of been thinking about… not talking about it? Not in an unhealthy way of course, just that—you know I have the questionnaire for a personalized experience—”

“The one-thousand-eight-hundred and thirty-three question questionnaire?” Taeil remembered the shock of hearing that for the first time.

“Yeah, that one. If it’s okay with you—I want to learn, on my own. About you, about me, about… _us_.”

Taeil tilted his head, watching Johnny carefully. He had his legs crossed and his hands in his lap, playing with the tips of his fingers. He seemed hopeful. 

Was it too much to think that Johnny might be thinking the same as Taeil? That he might one day experience emotions of love, like he was experiencing others? Was it selfish for Taeil to think that Johnny might genuinely fall in love with him too?

Taeil scoffed internally. _Johnny_ was the one who’d asked Taeil on a date, and Johnny might be influenced by other factors like Yuta, or the fact that Taeil was the first human Johnny spent so much time with—is essentially the one he’s learning everything from—but at least Johnny was exploring the possibility. Taeil supposed he was too, since he was the one agreeing to it all.

When he thought about it, that kind of sexual intimacy with Johnny was something he wanted, he couldn’t deny it at this point. He could admit that. Maybe admitting to being in love with Johnny would come easier with it. Not that the two were synonymous in Taeil’s mind, but it had always been important to him in a romantic relationship to be open (which they were) and intimate, both sexually and romantically. Two of those were basically checked off already and seeing as Taeil had had the realization of what Johnny might mean to him pretty early on—he just wouldn’t be surprised if getting on an even deeper sexual intimate level just sped up the process on the romantic one.

“You really like to learn.” Was the thought Taeil ended up speaking aloud, softly.

“I like learning about those things the most.” Johnny took a deep breath. “I feel like I change every time I learn more. More than if I just learned a new recipe. I like it.”

Taeil smiled, just as gentle as his voice. “I like it too. I like watching you learn. I like learning about you.” _About us_ , Johnny had said. 

“So… do you want to learn—together?”

Taeil nodded. “I’d love to.”

Johnny leaned over and took Taeil’s hand in his, squeezing it as he smiled, obviously happy about the turnout of the conversation. Taeil didn’t think it could have ended any other way.

“Will you give me a hint about what we’re doing tomorrow, then?” Taeil probed for any idea about their date and Johnny laughed, shaking his head and letting go of his hand to lean back against the arm of the couch.

“Nope! It’s a surprise. I do, however, have to tell you the rest of the legal jargon, so get comfy.”

 

 

 

 

  
“You should go with the stud earring, Johnny.”

“Not the hoop? Or the dangle-y one? I like the dangle-y one.”

“I think the stud is better.”

Taeil was sat in the kitchen, lazily flipping through news articles on the tablet but he could still hear Johnny and Taeyong arguing from the upstairs bathroom as Johnny got ready for their date. Taeil promised he wouldn’t look while Johnny got ready (even though he knew all the clothes he owned because Taeil had been the one to buy them). 

Taeil himself was ready, he was just waiting. He’d been waiting for most of the day really, as Johnny had told him they were going in the evening. Apparently the topic of earrings was a hot debate between the two, so much so that Johnny came down the stairs and showed his options in the palm of his hand to Taeil.

“Please pick one.”

Taeil looked Johnny over carefully, even though he already knew which earring he was going to pick. He’d put on a black turtleneck sweater with slim brown plaid pants and Taeil immediately knew which coat he was going to put on as well. His hair wasn’t all done up in gel like Taeil had expected though, instead it hung over Johnny’s forehead loose and fluffy, but still neat.

“Hmm, the dangle-y one.”

Johnny smiled in triumph as he put the earring on and Taeyong scoffed.

“If I could go out on a date and wear clothes, I’d have the best outfits. I have so many ideas. Please let me dress either of you one day.”

“One day,” Taeil agreed. “Hey if you want while we’re out, you can invite Yuta over? So you’re not lonely.”

Taeyong paused. “I’ll think about it.” He said eventually.

Taeil smiled to himself and turned to Johnny. “Ready?”

Johnny nodded and they put on their coats and headed out of the apartment. Taeil followed Johnny to the subway station, as he still had no idea where they were going or what they were in for, other than he had to be warm. So that probably meant they’d be outside for a while.

Taeil’s suspicions were confirmed when Johnny brought him to an outdoor night market, full of stalls and brimming with life.

“Did you find this place on your own or did Yuta tell you about it?”

“Yuta mentioned places like this. I looked this one up and visited it just to see if it would be nice.”

Taeil smiled, more to himself because he should’ve known Johnny would be drawn to trying so many different kinds of street food. Taeil was actually the one to drag Johnny to a stall first, insisting he try a mix of spicy rice cakes and fish cakes.

“No matter how many times I try and make this at home, nothing is as good as the ones they make at the markets.” Taeil bought a cup for the both of them. He stuck the wooden toothpick in a rice cake and offered it to Johnny, who leaned down to take it in his mouth. One chew and Johnny stilled, eyes going wide and letting the steam out of his mouth from the heat.

“It’s so good,” He gasped between bites. “It’s _hot_.”

“Hot and fresh, that’s the only way to eat this.” Taeil took a bite of a fish cake and hummed to himself, delighted.

“I feel like my taste buds are exploding. In a good way. Holy shit.” Johnny took the toothpick and got himself a fish cake and groaned when it landed on his tongue. “ _Wow_ , just wow.”

“Is that the first time you’ve used a swear?” Taeil tilted his head and Johnny mimicked him.

“I think so. Did I use it right? It’s not really something prominent in our programmed language. Yuta uses them a lot.”

“You did. It can be used in moments of frustration or pleasure. They’re pretty multipurpose.”

A minute had barely passed after they’d finished their spicy rice and fish cakes when Johnny pulled Taeil to a stall with fried squid on a stick.

“Amazing, this is amazing.” Johnny gushed after every piece of food he tried. They ended up trying a lot, Taeil was getting full but there was always room for dessert.

“I wish we could get these to Taeyong somehow,” Johnny sighed while observing what looked like very sugary cookies. They ended up getting ice cream with red bean paste in a waffle mold shaped like a fish (which was fascinating to Johnny) and continued walking along the street and observing the stalls even if they weren’t eating anything other than the dessert anymore.

“Maybe one day.” Taeil replied, though he wasn’t too sure what he was implying. _Maybe in another life_ , would that have been better? He shook his head. It was best not to dwell on it. “What was your favourite taste today?”

“That fried squid was really good,” Johnny gushed. “And then there was the takoyaki, that tofu thing and the spicy rice cakes… I don’t think I can decide this time.”

“If you could only have one of them ever again, which one would you choose?”

Johnny stopped walking to think and Taeil stood in front of him, delighted in the way Johnny was thinking seriously as he ate his ice cream. Streams of people passed by them, all on their own adventures. “I think it would be the spicy rice cakes. Yeah, that’s what I’d choose.”

They continued their walk down the street. “So which one was _your_ favourite?” Johnny repeated Taeil’s question back at him.

Taeil hummed and opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted.

“Taeil! Moon Taeil!”

Taeil whirled around to see a hand waving at him from not very far away. Donghyuck’s smile was big and bright and the two boys next to him, Jeno and Mark, looked very amused. 

Taeil waved back. “Hey, those are the interns I work with. Do you want to say hi? Johnny—?” Taeil turned to see Johnny frozen on the spot, like what had happened when he first met Ten. Even if Taeil knew what it meant, it was still unnerving to witness it again.

“Johnny? Did you make eye contact with another android?”

Johnny blinked, snapping out of it. He was opening his mouth to respond when it happened again—Johnny stood still for a couple seconds before recovering once more. Panic slowly crept up Taeil’s throat. “Johnny?”

“Sorry,” Johnny frowned, looking down at Taeil. “That’s what happens when androids meet each other, but no android codes came into my head, like it did with Ten. Huh.”

“Are you okay?” Taeil’s mind raced.

“Yeah, yeah,” Johnny melted into a smile, one free of worry. “I’m fine. Maybe there’s just so many people out here and it was overwhelming.”

“We should get Taeyong to look into it when we get back.” Taeil decided, but if Johnny wasn’t going to worry about it than Taeil would let it go for now.

“Hiya!” Donghyuck had made his way over with Jeno and Mark while Taeil had been too occupied with Johnny. “Are you on a date, Taeil? Cute.”

Mark grimaced. “Don’t embarrass him man, what if he wasn’t?”

Donghyuck looked between Johnny and Taeil. “I’m pretty sure they are, Mark.”

It made Taeil relax and laugh. “We are. Johnny, this is the intern I mentor, Donghyuck. These are the other interns as well, Jeno and Mark. Guys, this is Johnny. My—date.”

Johnny beamed. “Hi!”

“Hi, nice to meet you Johnny! We’ll leave you two to your date,” Donghyuck smiled at Johnny, then at Taeil endearingly. 

“You can join us for a bit if you’d like,” Johnny extended the invitation, which surprised Taeil. “Tell me all the secrets you know about Taeil, is he bad at work? Does he treat you well? Tell me about his dirty laundry.”

“Oh my god,” Taeil laughed.

That was how their date ended up with three extra people. Taeil, Donghyuck and Jeno stood in front of a musician, jamming to the music while Johnny and Mark talked very avidly to each other. They joined later, once Donghyuck had shown off a painted temporary tattoo he’d gotten of a sunflower below his ear (”Mark and Jeno chose it for me!”) which made Johnny want one, (he ended up getting a moon on his wrist, which was Donghyuck’s suggestion) and they finally found themselves back in front of the musician.

Johnny stood beside Taeil, hand on the small of his back. Taeil was so comfortable, so happy with how the evening was going he swayed to the music. When the musician sang a song he knew, he sang with him, under his breath as not to take away from their performance for the people around him. 

The musician ended his set and Taeil glanced up at Johnny, who was smiling at him fondly. Taeil smiled back, heart soaring.

Yeah, maybe he was falling.

In the end, it was Jeno who convinced Mark and Donghyuck to part ways with the two, so Johnny and Taeil walked to the subway station on their own.

“I had a good time,” Taeil didn’t want it to end.

“You’re saying that like it’s over.” Johnny slipped his hand into Taeil’s to pull him towards the subway platform that was the opposite way of home. He didn’t let go, even as they stood, waiting.

“It’s not?” Taeil smiled and Johnny shook his head.

“It’s not.”

Taeil didn’t think he’d ever been on a date so planned but so casual at the same time. He didn’t think he’d ever been on a date with someone he already liked so much, or who seemed to like him.

“So, what did you think about the boys?”

“They seem like fun,” Johnny and Taeil sat together in the subway, going who knows where. “Donghyuck likes you a lot, I don’t blame him.”

“I noticed you got along with Mark really well.”

“Yeah, he just… talked to me like we were friends already because I knew you and he was telling me about work. I wish I had more stories to tell people though.”

“You know, you can leave the apartment when I’m not there? I really don’t want you to feel cooped up all day.”

“I know, but,” Johnny brought the hand of Taeil’s that he held and placed it in his lap, running the thumb of his free hand over it. “Taeyong told me how worried you guys were, so I didn’t want to worry you again.”

Taeil’s skin tingled. “I’ll be fine next time, really.” When Johnny gave him a _look_ , Taeil insisted. “I mean it. You’re your own being Johnny. I was just worried because it was your first time and I care, but I know you’re perfectly capable of doing whatever you want on your own.”

Johnny stared down at their hands thoughtfully, silent.

Taeil continued. “Don’t worry about me, okay?”

The corner of Johnny’s lips turned up slightly and he looked at Taeil with such strong emotion that Taeil was taken by surprise, couldn’t even figure out what it was that Johnny was showing him. It suddenly occurred to him how far Johnny had come from when he’d first stepped out of the container into Taeil’s apartment.

“That’s hard,” Johnny said eventually. “You’re all I think about.”

Oh. Maybe Taeil had already fallen.

 

 

 

 

  
Namsan tower was where Johnny ended up taking Taeil. They walked along the boardwalk paths, hands intertwined and Taeil thought he could talk to Johnny for hours.

“I’ve never actually been here before, even if I’ve lived in Seoul for a while.” Taeil looked from the view of the bustling night city to Johnny, who was taking his time absorbing all the sights around him. The lights in this part of the city were warmer, less harsh than the flashing neon where the apartment was. Taeil quite liked the way it painted Johnny’s skin.

“I’m glad I was the first to take you here.”

Johnny stopped and leaned on the metal railing of the boardwalk path they were on, switching his focus on his surroundings to Taeil. “Do you miss your hometown?”

Taeil nodded, also leaning on the metal railing. It was cold but looking at Johnny made him feel warm. “Yeah. I miss my Mom a lot. Sometimes I think about moving her out here but as amazing as the city is, she’d never be able to stay here for long. Ah, I need to visit her soon, it’s been too long. I’ve been a bad son.” Of course, his Mom would never call him that, but he still felt it sometimes.

“I don’t think it’s possible for you to be a bad anything.” Johnny’s hand squeezed Taeil’s. They still haven’t let go. “I want to visit your hometown too. I want to keep learning about you.”

It came out softer than he’d intended when Taeil whispered, “You want to meet my Mom?” Taeil hadn’t ever brought someone home before, hadn’t ever told his Mom of any serious relationship because he hadn’t thought to—none of them had asked to see her, asked to see his hometown. Johnny wanted to.

Taeil wanted Johnny to meet her too.

Johnny nodded. “Yeah. She raised you, right? She must be great since her son turned out amazing. I’d like to meet her, one day. If that’s okay with you? I hope she’ll like me.” His tone was light, teasing but something heavy fell over Taeil’s heart as he stared at Johnny, overwhelmed.

Instead of saying _that’s fine with me_ , instead of saying _yes, I’d love for you to meet her_ , instead of saying _she’d adore you_ , Taeil’s voice was barely audible when he breathed, “Can I kiss you?”

Johnny blinked, as if he couldn’t believe it. It took him a few moments, silent, before he replied, “Yeah,” His voice was hoarse. “ _Yes_ , please.”

Taeil unhooked their hands and leaned to cup Johnny’s jaw, gently bringing him down to bridge the gap between their lips.

Taeil could only describe their first kiss as soft, slow, _tender_. It was Taeil saying all the words he couldn’t yet find to tell Johnny. He closed his eyes and lost himself in it, in the softness of Johnny's skin, in the warmth of his plush lips.

Heart hammering in his chest, it was hard to pull away from Johnny, but Taeil managed to with a blush painting his cheeks that he hoped was hidden from the night sky. When he pulled away, Johnny was smiling.

“That was… uhm—” Johnny bit his lip and Taeil had to shy his gaze away, his own smile betraying the realization that he’d finally acted on his overwhelming urge to kiss Johnny. It was all his Mom’s fault, she was his soft spot. “Wow—uhh—We should—” Johnny sounded out of breath, like they’d been kissing for hours even if it was only once. He tapped on the metal railing and a screen popped up in front of them. “We should submit a lock. To commemorate today.”

Taeil hid his chuckle in a cough. He briefly wondered if Yuta would notice anything the next time he saw him, since his friend had been so observant the first time he and Johnny had gotten to another level. Taeil thought he just might like this level even more.

He slipped his hand back into Johnny’s because it was steady, something he could hold onto because he’d somehow made himself nervous and jittery all because of one kiss. “Have you seen the photos of when they used to lock the locks around the railings here?”

Johnny hummed, smiling. “At least there’s room now for everyone’s lock when they come here. Good for tourism.” He swiped his finger over the screen and chose the layout of a round purple lock, before tracing in his name on the screen and moving aside for Taeil to write his own.

The screen showed them the image of the lock, Johnny’s name on one side and Taeil’s on the other. Johnny turned to him. “How do you feel right now?”

“Right now?” _Nervous, overwhelmed_. “Happy,” was what he decided on.

“Happy,” Johnny repeated, writing down the word on the screen and Taeil watched it appear under their names on the lock with a tiny heart. “Are we ready to lock it?”

Taeil nodded. “Go ahead.” 

They watched the screen that showed them their lock attaching itself to the railing and locking itself onto it virtually. There was nothing there physically, there hadn’t been locks on the rails for several years but there would always be something to show that Johnny and Taeil were there that night, that they were happy, should anyone choose to look through the gallery that held millions of virtual locks all on this boardwalk.

“Thank you,” Taeil said.

Johnny squeezed his hand.

 

 

 

 

  
Taeil supposed the only good thing about the date ending, was that they didn’t actually have to part ways. Or so he thought.

“What are you doing?” He asked when they reached the front of the apartment building and Johnny stopped, causing Taeil to slightly ricochet backwards as they still held hands.

“I walked you home.”

Taeil blinked at him. “We live together.”

“I know but,” Taeil couldn’t tell if Johnny was joking, if he was embarrassed—maybe both? Johnny rocked on the balls of his feet. “This is how the dates end in romance movies and I wanted to give you that.”

Unable to help himself, Taeil burst into laughter. “Okay then," Taeil straightened up and Johnny smiled as Taeil played along. "I had a great time with you Johnny and I’d love to do this again sometime. Text me when you get home safe.” 

Their hands slid apart, neither of them really wanting to let go. “Goodnight, Taeil.”

Taeil walked backwards until his back rested against the front entrance of the building. “Goodnight, Johnny.”

He smiled the entire way up to the eighth floor. He opened the door to the apartment and had quite the laugh when he had to explain to a bewildered Yuta where Johnny was when he entered alone. Yuta was quick to leave though, with a suspicious smile and observing eyes.

Taeil was tired when he climbed into bed with Johnny that night, eyelids drooping. He pressed his nose into the juncture of Johnny’s collarbones.

“Before you fall asleep,” Johnny whispered. “Can I ask you something?”

Taeil hummed, eyes closed.

“Why did you want to kiss me?”

Taeil struggled with which words to say, because he had a lot. In the end, he chose, “I’ve never met anyone else like you,” because it was true.

Johnny huddled closer and Taeil could feel him smile when he pressed his mouth to the top of Taeil’s head. “You don’t need to ask for permission next time, okay?”

Taeil found it funny, since it sounded like something he would say to Johnny instead. “Okay.”

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe Taeil would have gotten a good night’s sleep if he had not been woken up by Taeyong calling his name and Johnny nudging him awake.

“What time is it?” He yawned, stretching out his limbs but staying as close as possible to Johnny’s warmth.

“Three a.m,” There was an edge to Taeyong’s voice, one that made Taeil wake up a lot faster. “I’m sorry Taeil but—Kun’s at the door.”

“Why is Kun at the door at three a.m?” Maybe not as awake as he’d like to be. Johnny helped him get up out of bed and Taeil shuffled down the stairs.

“He hasn’t actually knocked yet, he’s just been standing there.” Taeyong turned on the dim lights, as not to hurt Taeil’s eyes. “I think… I think he’s been crying.”

That put a hurry into Taeil’s step.

“Should I start some tea?” Johnny had put on pants and a shirt and was shuffling his own way to the kitchen.

“Good idea, thank you.”

When Taeil opened the door to the apartment, Kun was standing there, eyes blank, fist raised as if he was just about to knock. 

“Oh,” he blinked. “Sorry, I—I just—”

Kun looked like he hadn’t slept at all since Taeil had last seen him. There were dark shadows under his eyes and his cheeks were gaunt. He looked lost. Taeil very much noted the absence of Ten when he ushered him in.

Kun took enough steps into the apartment for Taeil to close the door but he did not go further.

“I’m sorry,” He repeated, eyes blinking more as the tears welled up. Taeil felt his heart break. “I’m sorry—I didn’t know where else to go—I woke you up, I’m sorry—”

“Kun,” Taeil put a hand on his friend’s shoulder to quiet him, but the tears fell anyway even if Kun had fallen silent. “What’s wrong?”

Kun pushed himself into Taeil’s shoulder, nearly knocking him over as he began to sob.

Taeil’s reaction was automatic, arms around Kun, holding him close and making soothing hushing sounds into his ear to calm him down. “Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay.”

Kun shook his head and pulled himself up, staring straight into Taeil’s eyes with the kind of desperation and sadness that Taeil hadn’t ever seen him have before. “It’s _not_ okay Taeil, it’s not— _Ten_ , he—”

_Soothing back rub, soothing back rub,_ Taeil couldn’t show he was nervous, dreading whatever it was Kun was about to say. Something was wrong, something was so, _so_ wrong but Taeil couldn’t let it get to him, he had to be there to comfort.

“He’s broken Taeil!” Kun cried out before shoving his head back into Taeil’s shoulder. “He's gone, he’s _broken_.”

The sound of ceramic shattering on the floor echoed in Taeil’s ears.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i cant believe it took 40k for them to fucking kiss
> 
> [ Twitter ](https://twitter.com/jokheiz)
> 
> [ Curious Cat ](https://curiouscat.me/jokheiz)


	7. INPUT LOG 007.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
> 
> Kun let out a sharp sigh. “If I do then that makes it real.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let everyone know im gonna be moving out of my country in january so I have no idea how I’ll fare for updates while I settle and get my life together but if u dont follow me on twitter and just wonder if ive disappeared—I havent,, I just gotta get Life sorted out first! anyways enjoy!!!

Getting Kun to divulge any information between hiccups and sobs was nearly impossible. Taeil brought him to the couch where they sat and Taeil held Kun tightly until he cried himself to sleep. Taeil quickly wiped away the one tear that had escaped his own eye—because having to sit through Kun’s heaving had been hard, but he was determined to be a steady rock for his friend to lean on. 

With a sigh, Taeil continued gently massaging the back of Kun’s neck after he wiped Kun’s face with his sleeves. “Johnny,” he whispered, unable to turn or look around to see where he was—as not to disturb Kun’s sleeping form.

There was no immediate response.

“Johnny?” Taeil called again.

Feet shuffled closer and Johnny came into view at the end of the couch, though he kept quite the distance. He didn’t look Taeil in the eye. “Yes?”

“Could you carry Kun up to the bed, please? He’ll be sore if he stays like this. _I’ll_ be sore.”

Johnny nodded, approaching with his arms out. Taeil carefully helped Kun into Johnny’s arms—and suddenly his friend seemed so small. _So broken_ , Taeil thought to himself and grimaced, _because Ten is too_. 

Taeil watched Johnny carefully carry Kun upstairs and took a moment to put his face into his hands once they’d disappeared from view. Ten— _broken_.

He had many questions—wasn’t he repairable? Did Kun not have the money? Taeil would happily lend him some if it meant not ever seeing Kun that upset ever again and that Ten was okay. Knowing Kun though, he’d probably already tried getting Ten repaired—and that meant that Ten might be beyond it.

The prospect of that sent a chill down Taeil’s spine. He rubbed his hands down his face and stood up, hoping that he wouldn’t deal with another heartbreak when he looked at the mess on the floor of the kitchen.

He was wrong, of course. Scattered on the floor were pieces of dark green ceramic—Taeil’s favourite tea cup. The one made by his father.

With a sigh, Taeil cleaned it up. While saddened about having to dispose of it, he knew there were plenty still back at his parents’ home. Losing a prized possession hurt of course, but it would never hurt as much as losing someone close to you—that was something Taeil already knew. He’d let himself feel sad until the moment the pieces were out of his sight—then he’d pick himself back up and smile, because Kun needed him.

The evidence of Johnny dropping the teacup in shock was all gone by the time he came back down the stairs and into the kitchen. Taeil had pulled out a new cup and made himself some tea with the water Johnny had already started boiling—he had a feeling it was going to be a long day.

“Do you want some?” He asked Johnny, who stared at Taeil’s new cup on the counter.

“No thank you.”

Taeil turned to him. Something in his tone sounded off. “Are you okay?”

Johnny’s gaze flicked to the floor. “I don’t know,” he whispered eventually.

Taeil turned back to the counter because he couldn’t quite take the look on Johnny’s face without wanting to kiss it all better. It was not the time and he didn’t think it would have helped as much as he would have liked. “That’s okay,” he stirred his tea to distract himself. “It’s okay not to be okay.”

“We’re gonna help him, right?” Taeyong spoke up.

“Of course,” Taeil smiled because he wanted to be sincere no matter how tired he was or how much strength it took him to pull those muscles up into what he hoped might be a comforting asmile. “Once Kun is able to tell us what happened, we’re gonna do everything we can to help him, okay?”

Johnny didn’t acknowledge Taeil’s words—only nodded solemnly and dragged himself to the couch, turning on the TV.  Taeil was concerned of course, he could only imagine what Johnny might be thinking. He hadn’t lost anyone before—or maybe he was thinking about how it was something that could happen to him too. Taeil wouldn’t let himself venture further into any thoughts of that nature because it wouldn’t be fair to either of them. He sighed for what felt like the hundredth time (quietly, so only Taeyong would be able to pick it up) and took a sip of his tea. 

No matter how hard, Taeil would help Kun. He knew if the situation were reversed, Kun would be by his side too. They understood each other—in a way Yuta hadn’t and Doyoung couldn’t. It was largely unspoken, aside from the few conversations they’d had about it, but that was what Taeil liked. They’d just accepted. Taeil would be forever grateful and it was the least he could do, to be a shoulder to cry on, to lend money if that was what Kun needed. He’d do it all, because he knew how much Ten meant to Kun and how much Kun meant to Ten—and because he knew that if this happened to him with Johnny, Taeil too, would break.

 

 

 

  
Taeil had not gone back to sleep by the time Kun stumbled down into the living room later that morning.

“I feel like hell,” he croaked and Taeil smiled at him from where he sat at the dining table.

“Do you want some tea?”

“Yes, please.”

Taeil got up and poured the already boiled and still hot water into a prepared teacup for Kun. He placed it on the table in front of where Kun sat himself, head in his hands. Taeil quietly sat next to him.

“So,” Taeil started, tracing his finger along the rim of his own empty cup. He was so thankful it was the weekend and not a work day. The sound of Johnny still watching TV faded into the background. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

Kun let out a sharp sigh. “If I do then that makes it real.”

“Kun…”

“I know, I know,” Kun swallowed, staring into the depths of the steeping green tea. “It _is_ real. I should’ve known this would happen. You remember I got him second-hand, right?”

Taeil nodded. “I remember.”

“Well, they don’t sell his model anymore. Haven’t for a long time. I know what you’re going to say—” Kun finally looked up, eyes still red and puffy and already swimming with new tears. “—they don’t repair out of date sexbots. Trust me, I’ve tried. They take them away and offer you a new one. I don’t _want_ a new one.” Kun’s fist hit the table with a thump, rattling the teacups on it and slightly startling Taeil. “I want Ten.”

“Why do they do that?” Taeil didn’t remember anything of this kind of policy, but then again, it had been a while since a new android release so he might not have known during the time he worked at Neo Tech. 

Kun shrugged. “Quality check? They don’t want people selling them off second hand so they make it better to get the android upgraded if you still want the same one—and if you don’t, they give you a new one. They don’t tell you about this?”

“I just do data entry,” Taeil had always felt wildly out of touch with his job, now even more so with the understanding that there was still so much he didn’t know about the company. “I don’t really work with the policies…”

“I researched—Ten’s launch line was discontinued years ago. He’s probably one of the last models existing from that year. It was only a matter of time.” Kun’s head fell back into his hands, unkept hair almost dipping into the tea he had yet to touch.

“We can’t find a—a blackmarket repairer of some sort?” There had to be someone out there that could do it—there always was.

Kun snorted, an unamused sound. “Where? Are we gonna ask Taeyong—a _Neo Tech_ product—to search for it? No offense, Taeyong.”

“None taken,”

Kun leaned closer to Taeil and spoke in a low voice. “I know I sound crazy and maybe I am, maybe this whole thing has gotten to my head since I lost Ten two days ago but—Neo Tech is a monopoly, Taeil. They’re the number one android seller in the world—no one comes close. Did you know people have gone to _jail_ for selling and buying their androids second-hand? Is that even legal? _Nobody_ can hack their tech or figure out how to duplicate it. There isn’t anyone who can repair him. It’s useless! He’s gone, he’s fucking _gone_.”

It was Kun’s tone that clued Taeil in. “What did you do Kun?” He breathed out and watched his friend across from him crumble.

Kun’s hands tightened in his hair before relaxing again. When he looked up, he was crying. “I tried to do it myself. I… I learned how to code in high school—I’m pretty good at it!—I thought maybe, that I could get in his system somehow, see what was wrong? But I couldn’t get in and then it must have triggered a safety protocol or something and his body just,” Kun choked back a sob. “I don’t even know if his data chip is okay. If I killed him completely—”

“Don’t say that.” Taeil’s voice made Kun jump. “Don’t you dare say that.”

“Taeil—”

“How did you buy Ten then?”

Kun sniffed and wiped at his tears. “A guy came up to me in the store one night and asked if I needed help. He sold Ten to me. I didn’t know it was illegal then. I’m so stupid—and even then I’d do it the same all over again.”

“Well, I think if someone can successfully and illegally sell a second hand android then there is someone out there that can repair them—and we’re going to find that person Kun, I promise you.”

Kun sighed, still looking dejected but like a heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “Thank you, Taeil. I doubt it but, thank you.”

Taeil watched Kun finally take a sip of his lukewarm tea. “You’re free to stay here if you want. For as long as it takes.”

“Oh Taeil—”

“I insist. You’re not going to be okay if you go back to your place right now. Is Ten still—?”

Kun nodded solemnly. “He didn’t come with a container so he’s just kind of… lying on my bed.”

Taeil reached out and put a hand on Kun’s. “Stay.”

“Okay.”

After finishing his tea, Kun went back upstairs to sleep—Taeil could understand, there wasn’t much he could do other than try and sleep his sadness away, no matter how much it might not work. 

Taeil got up from the table, put his cup into the sink and headed over to the couch where Johnny had not moved. He wondered if Johnny was really even watching the TV as his eyes seemed to be glazed over. Taeil sat beside him.

“Johnny?”

He turned his head slowly, as if noticing Taeil was there for the first time.

“What happens when a new version of androids come out? To the older ones?”

Johnny blinked. “Kun told you. Either you bring your android to get upgraded or switch units entirely, or it stops working eventually.”

Taeil nodded, eyes to the TV now that he had Johnny’s attention. Though he suspected he’d had it the entire time. “Would you like to be upgraded?”

Johnny whispered so quietly Taeil almost missed it. “Yes, please.”

A pause, and then, even quieter, “I don’t want to end up like Ten.”

It was Johnny who stared at the TV now as Taeil stared at him. Taeil reached out, placing a hand on his thigh. “I won’t let that happen.”

Johnny said nothing, a habit he had in the last couple hours that had Taeil a little worried. Taeil rubbed his thumb in circles, hoping to soothe him but Johnny seemed to tense up. It gave Taeil the impression that Johnny wanted to pull away, so he stopped and brought his hand back into his own lap.

He watched Johnny swallow, close his eyes, then chew the inside of his bottom lip. Taeil waited until Johnny gathered up the courage to say whatever it was he was trying to say.

“I’m sorry for breaking your teacup.”

It wasn’t what Taeil had been expecting. Was that really what was bothering him? “It’s okay, accidents happen.”

Johnny did not seem satisfied. His hands clenched into fists while resting on his lap. “You don’t have to lie.”

Taeil’s mouth opened, but no sounds came out. He closed it, opened it again, but he still could not find the words he needed while sitting there in shock. “I’m not— _Johnny_ —”

Johnny stood up from the couch, looking anywhere but Taeil. “I’m going to go for a walk.”

Taeil had barely managed to breathe out “okay,” before Johnny was out the door. He sank back into the couch, staring at the TV. It was on but Taeil found he could not hear anything, could not concentrate on anything being shown to him. Taeyong didn’t say anything either. He let the silence of his apartment consume him.

 

 

 

 

  
For the first time in Taeil’s working life at Neo Tech, he and Yuta had to push their way through protesters to get into their own office building. Police let them through the doors after they showed their IDs.

“What the fuck is going on?” Yuta looked back to the protesters outside while trying to fix his hair that had gotten messed up in the mayhem. 

Taeil shrugged and pressed the number for their floor in the elevator.

Doyoung greeted them good morning with a “hey,” to Yuta and a “you look like shit,” to Taeil, who chuckled humourlessly.

“I feel like shit, thanks.”

Doyoung frowned, turning serious. He placed a hand on Taeil’s shoulder to stop him from walking away to his desk. “Is everything all right?”

Taeil shrugged. He was too tired to explain it all. He’d slept on the couch the night before and even saying that he slept was generous. More like closed his eyes and worried about the friend upstairs and the one sat in his dining room that wouldn’t speak to him.

“I couldn’t get anything out of him this morning either,” Yuta supplied. “Taeyong told me something bad happened though.”

Doyoung leaned closer to Taeil with a look of concern. “Is Johnny okay?”

Taeil pushed Doyoung’s hand off his shoulder. “He’s fine. Just—not now, okay? I’ll tell you guys later, over lunch.” Taeil just wanted to sit and get the day over with.

Neither of them protested so Taeil took the opportunity to walk to his desk, sinking into his chair with a sigh. He didn’t know why he had been expecting quiet when he knew he had an intern to work with, but the squeak from the chair next to him as Donghyuck turned and smiled in greeting still startled Taeil, and perhaps tired him out even more. He tried not to let it show.

“Morning! How did your date go?”

Taeil blinked. It seemed so long ago now, though it had only been two days. “It was good,” he nodded, trying to hide the fact that ultimately, that night had been ruined. “Yeah, it was good,” because it had been—it really had been. It was just hard to get the sadness out of the memory now.

Donghyuck was observant though, face falling when Taeil didn’t do a good job at disguising the fact that there was something else on his mind.

“Are you sure?” He asked, voice lowered.

Taeil smiled at him because he appreciated the concern, he really did. “Yes, I’m sure. Everything was great, I’m just—I’m tired right now. It was a long weekend after that.”

Donghyuck’s expression did not change throughout the morning. It seemed like he took Taeil’s word for it, but did not believe him one bit. As heart warming as it was, it had Taeil on edge. He just wanted to have a normal working day.

He had still not figured out how to tell Doyoung and Yuta about the whole situation with Ten when they came to fetch him for lunch. They headed towards the elevator as Doyoung had to go buy his lunch, but they were stopped by Kyungsoo on the way there.

“Sorry to interrupt, but Taeil’s been invited to the conference room on the first floor.”

All three of them stared at their boss.

“You mean like, the official conference room? The one where they hold televised press conferences?” Yuta gasped.

“Yes,” Kyungsoo sighed, like he was tired of them already. “The presentation will be starting in ten minutes. I suggest you hurry.”

“Since when was there an official presentation?”

“Taeil’s the only one invited?”

“There was a list passed down from the top of all the names of people they wanted there and no, neither of your names were on it.” Kyungsoo stared them down and both their mouths snapped shut. “And I’m sure none of you were blind to the protesters you had to climb through this morning, that should’ve given you a hint. No, it’s not televised, it’s a private presentation for invited Neo Tech employees only, but that doesn’t mean you can try and talk your way in there. Now please, I won’t have the only employee invited from this floor be late to the CEO’s presentation, thank you.” When Taeil opened his mouth, Kyungsoo hushed him. “You’re permitted to have your lunch after, don’t fret.” And then he left, leaving all three of them speechless.

Doyoung and Yuta stared at Taeil with even more questions that Taeil didn’t have any of the answers to. He had no idea why he was invited. He didn’t even know what presentation was about. Snapping out of his daze, Taeil stepped towards the elevator.

“Guess I should head down then. Don’t want to be late for the… presentation, I guess?” All of it was still so confusing. Taeil almost went down alone until Doyoung remembered he was going down to get a lunch, so Yuta followed them anyway.

Doyoung turned to Yuta. “I thought you would have heard there was a private presentation? Don’t you hear everything?”

“I thought _you_ would have heard about it.”

“Maybe we just weren’t paying attention.” Taeil added. It kind of made sense. The CEO had arrived last week, the protesters were in full force today. Maybe they’d just missed it. Taeil certainly had had other things on his mind.

Getting out of the elevator, Doyoung and Yuta watched Taeil walk down the opposite hallway from them, towards the giant conference doors manned by security. He turned to give his friends a weak wave before showing his ID to the men and was let through.

He was obviously one of the last people to enter as the giant room was filled with employees from every floor, all chattering and muttering to each other in anticipation. Nobody knew what they were brought here for.

Taeil spied an empty seat among the filled rows and headed towards it. He managed to sit down the moment the lights dimmed (he didn’t know they did that—were they supposed to do that?) and a screen rolled down in front of the room and lit up.

It felt more like a movie screening than a presentation but then again, Taeil had never been invited to one of these fancy important ones before. Maybe they were all like that.

The screen began to play an ad that Taeil was familiar with. It was the TV version of the ad for the current line of androids—Johnny’s line. While it hadn’t been what had gotten the idea of getting an android in his head a couple of months ago, he still remembered seeing it from time to time while watching the news. It showed the different kinds of generic androids: cooks, butlers, nannies. Taeil noted, like all the other forms of advertising, they did not showcase the sexbots. It seemed to have a new effect over the video though, one that made it seem grainy and old. 

When it was over, another ad played but this one Taeil didn’t recognize. It didn’t have the same filter as the other one. It was brighter, sleeker and showed a diverse group of people, laughing, talking, working. It was a minute into the new ad that Taeil realized they weren’t human people—they were androids. 

No longer categorized by profession or roles with a certain generic look to them, every android was unique from the other, but all had the necessary skills to do any job the others could do ( _and better!_ The ad pointed out). It reminded Taeil of what Taeyong had said about the sexbots, how they seemed much more advanced than the generic ones.

Actually, all of it reminded Taeil of the sexbots. Especially when the ad rattled off information that all androids were made with a uniquely generated code that rendered them all different from each other, for a better, more personalized experience. He was pretty sure he’d heard Taeyong say most of those words when they first researched sexbots.

The ad ended, the lights came back on and the CEO of Neo Tech, Lucas Wong entered the stage amid a roaring applause with his handsome suit and perfectly styled hair. Taeil clapped slowly, looking at the people around him. He didn’t think he knew a single person in the room, aside from passing them in the elevator once or twice. The only person he’d probably ever spoken to was Sicheng, who he spotted sitting a couple rows up from where Taeil was. 

Taeil’s attention snapped back to the front when Lucas Wong began to speak, loud and booming, amplified by the mic hidden behind his ear.

“What you have just had the pleasure of seeing—is the commercial for our new line of androids.” He paused with a smile while the audience applauded again. “We’ve spent a long time, hard at work, perfecting them. They will be the most advanced technology our world has ever seen, able to help you with anything you and your family needs, and with a little more person-ability too.”

Lucas Wong was fascinating to watch as he walked across the stage. He spoke to the audience as if having a conversation directly with each and every person. Taeil suddenly felt like Yuta had that day they’d watched the CEO down through the windows, as if Wong had just looked straight at him.

“I called you all here today to tell you that if you are an owner of any of the old line of bots—you will be able to upgrade them for free first, before anyone else.”

The audience applauded loudly, someone whistled and a thought struck Taeil suddenly. This wouldn’t be exciting for anyone that didn’t have an android. He took a quick scan around the room again. Was everyone here… an android owner?

“Unfortunately, if you own a generic bot, like the butlerbot or the nannybot, you will have to trade those in as they will cease functionality after the new line is released—but because you work at this lovely company, I’ve decided to also give you an upgrade to the new line for free. Wouldn’t want to see your hard earned money going to waste now, would we?”

That also earned him a roaring applause and Wong smiled a camera-worthy smile. Taeil peered over at Sicheng, who, unlike the people around him, sat still and calm. Taeil couldn’t really see the expression on his face but he could tell his eyes were glued to the CEO in front.

Wong continued to speak, about the company, about how the androids were going to change the world for the better. Taeil had gotten himself lost in thought. They probably had records of everyone who legally purchased an android. Information was easy to find, they could use that to know who in the company had an android and invite them all here for a positively received announcement.

What Taeil could not figure out just yet, was the why. Other than an ego boost and positive yammering about the new line, could there be any other purpose? Was that just how business worked and Taeil had missed that part of school?—not that he’d taken any business related classes. He was just lucky he had Doyoung to land him this job.

Taeil could hear the murmuring around him, how these androids were going to be a breakthrough, that Neo Tech have really outdone themselves this time. But with every point the CEO went through that separated the new androids from the old, Taeil could not see how it made the new different from Johnny.

Johnny had many skills, not just ones for sex. He wasn’t every confident in them, but he had them. He was funny, understood humour, he could bake, cook, plan a date. He could choose outfits and style himself—and he could probably do that to anyone else too. Most importantly he could learn, which seemed to be the highlighted factor in the presentation.

Was he the only one who noticed this? Or was he the only one who had a… different kind of relationship with his android—more than just owner and product. Taeil winced. He could never just have that.

Taeil was so caught up in his own thoughts he almost missed the end of the presentation stating that the androids had been in use in several small counties in Korea already for a couple of weeks of testing. Taeil’s hometown immediately stood out to him—Boseong.

That started a different train of thought. Had they been helping out harvesting the green tea leaves? Making the green tea products to sell? Selling them?

His Mother hadn’t mentioned anything of it—but then again, she would have no idea that they were androids if new people were coming in. Taeil assumed they weren’t going to just announce that they were androids, in order to not frighten the people who were not constantly surrounded by tech like in the city.

The applause for the end of the presentation startled Taeil back into reality as Lucas Wong took a final bow and left the stage. There was a date on the screen, set in two months time. The release date, Taeil assumed. 

Everyone around him began to get up, to chatter excitedly to each other. Taeil was forced to stand if he didn’t want to get pushed out of the way, though he tried peering over to see Sicheng, with no luck. He’d probably escaped before the crowd.

When Taeil got back to his floor, Doyoung and Yuta immediately pounced on him, demanding information. Taeil brought both of them into the usual room they had lunch in and began to explain everything. What happened to Kun and Ten—though he left out Johnny’s unusual behaviour—and then the presentation. 

“You think the new line of androids is just— _sexbots_?” Doyoung asked incredulously. It did sound a little off the charts, but Taeil was sure he had sound reason to suspect.

“It was just the way they described them—there wasn’t anything different than what Johnny can do,” Taeil insisted. “When they release the official details, I’ll have Taeyong look over them and compare. I’m sure he could help figure it out.”

“Wouldn’t the public figure that out though? There are other sexbot owners—sorry, I know you don’t like that term. Unless, people are too embarrassed to say they have a sexbot?”

“Or they never took the time to learn about them like Taeil did Johnny,” Yuta pointed out. “And shit, they only invited android owners? Why not all of us? We all work at the same tech company, owning an android or not.”

“It makes sense for their audience, for better reception anyway,” Doyoung supplied, though Taeil could tell something was bothering him. “But shouldn’t they keep employee information and consumer information separate? Is it not concerning that they’re using those together to pinpoint certain people?”

Taeil shrugged. “I’m sure there’s other ways they could have figured out I worked for the company without using both information profiles. Johnny was delivered to my apartment—which is owned and given to me by Neo Tech. It’s easy.”

“But they’re using it—we all probably signed away the rights for them to utilize that information when we get any of their products and don’t read the terms of service.” Doyoung sighed.

“Ironically,” Taeil noted, “that’s the one piece of legal jargon they don’t insist on reading out to you.”

Doyoung made a face that told Taeil he was very unhappy about this new revelation. “Hm, I wonder why?” sarcasm dripped from his tone.

From the corner of his eye, Taeil noticed a tuft of curly brown hair right outside the door. He turned to Doyoung and Yuta. “We should get back to work—actually, I should eat, but you know what I mean. Before Kyungsoo kills us for standing around like this.”

Yuta snorted but his face turned solemn. He put a hand on Taeil’s shoulder. “About the Ten thing—if Kun needs anything, or if you need a better place to sleep too, I can keep him company for a night or two while you and Johnny take my apartment. Just don’t… _you know_.”

Taeil smiled. He appreciated his friend’s gesture. “Thanks, Yuta.”

Doyoung chewed his lip and frowned. “I don’t know if Kun wants to hear this from me but—I really do hope everything’s okay and it turns out… better. I hope he gets Ten back.”

“I think he’d appreciate that a lot, Doyoung. Thank you.”

They left their lunch room and Taeil returned to his desk, eyeing the familiar tuft of curly brown hair sat in the chair next to him.

“How much did you hear, Hyuck?”

Donghyuck turned to him with a sheepish smile. “Not much, I swear! I was just passing by.”

Taeil didn’t believe him, but he let it go anyway. He had a question he wanted to ask.

“Your brother’s boyfriend, Sicheng—he was at the presentation. Do you know what kind of android he has?”

Donghyuck blinked at him, but there was something different in his eyes. They seemed a little empty, less… him. Donghyuck shook his head. “Sicheng doesn’t own an android.”

Taeil frowned. That went against what he’d been assuming. “None? Not even a Home?”

Donghyuck shook his head again. “No. He’s less of a tech geek and more into artistry, really.”

Taeil stared at him. “Isn’t Sicheng in IT?”

There it was again, that something in Donghyuck’s eyes, gone in a blink, but Taeil had seen it, this time mixed with panic.

Interestingly enough, the intern shrugged it off. “I mean, I don’t know his life choices. Isn’t the only thing you have to do in IT is ask if you turned the power off and on again? He could be good at that.”

Taeil nodded, though there was something just—not right. There was something about Sicheng that Donghyuck wasn’t saying and really, what kind of guy worked in IT, but didn’t own a single piece of tech for the company he worked for? Or was Taeil just stereotyping?

“Anyways,” Donghyuck continued. “Speaking of my brother—you should visit his bakery soon! You’d enjoy it. I think your sad friend would enjoy it too—so bring him, yeah?”

Taeil’s mind spun. “Yeah,” He found himself nodding, dazed. Donghyuck switching the subject so suddenly on him made him confused. What the hell was Donghyuck on about? “Yeah, sure.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ Twitter ](https://twitter.com/jokheiz)
> 
> [ Curious Cat ](https://curiouscat.me/jokheiz)


	8. INPUT LOG 008.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donghyuck’s gaze softened. “I do. I trust him with my life—and Ten’s.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slight TW for a description of what happened to Ten's body—it's not explicitly graphic but i just wanted to warn! There just mentions of, uh, burning.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who wished me luck with my move!! i'm 3 weeks into being in ireland and I'm kinda getting the hang of things? hehe, thank you for waiting so patiently <3

“I appreciate you getting me out of the apartment, Taeil,” Kun said as they sat in an otherwise empty subway car. “I just don’t see how going to this bakery helps.”

Taeil shrugged because this time, he really didn’t have any clue as to how it might answer their problem. “Donghyuck’s been pestering me for a couple of days now and just—the way he says it—it makes me think he has a solution or something. I still don’t know how much he knows.” Taeil assumed he’d overheard most of his conversations at work with Doyoung and Yuta.

Even though he’d been growing closer to the intern, now Taeil wondered just who he was really—and what he knew, because it seemed like he knew a lot more than Taeil could even fathom. 

He had to stop thinking about it or else he’d get dizzy. He observed the directions that Donghyuck had given him on his phone and motioned for Kun to get up as it was their stop soon.

“I hope you don’t mind me asking—” Kun started as Taeil led them out of the station. “Is everything alright with Johnny? I hope I haven’t… done anything to your relationship or anything. I know I’m being a burden by staying at your place—”

“You’re not a burden,” Taeil was quick to interrupt. He could never let any of his friends think that of themselves. Even if they did, he would do his very best to assure them they weren’t. “Johnny… Ah, I don’t really know to be honest. I think the whole thing with Ten hit him pretty hard. He might be thinking of his own future now—especially with the new line of androids.”

Kun hummed. “He goes on walks a lot.”

Taeil nodded. In truth, he didn’t think he’d seen Johnny for more than an hour consecutively. He was always out, _always on a walk_ , he said. While Taeil agreed it was a good way to get your thoughts in order—there wasn’t anything like taking a step out into nature and just letting it consume you for a moment—it was still worrying. Johnny wasn’t talking about how he was feeling. Of course, he didn’t _have_ to and perhaps Taeil was at fault for not trying hard enough to initiate anything either.

The thought that maybe he was neglecting Johnny unintentionally had occurred to him of course, how could it not? Kun’s problem was one that could easily happen to Taeil and maybe Taeil could not bear to think of what would happen if it did. Maybe that was why he was willing to drag Kun to this bakery if it meant answers. It meant that if anything should happen to Johnny—Taeil knew there would be a solution.

Was it selfish? Probably. But he had to deal with things one at a time too, he wasn’t made of magic. Either way, he promised himself to at least make better attempts at getting Johnny to talk to him, or at least getting Johnny to stay around him longer—to feel comfortable with Taeil again.

“I’m sorry,” Kun sighed suddenly, startling Taeil.

“For what?”

“For dragging you into this, for causing problems,” Kun held a hand up when Taeil opened his mouth. “I know you said I’m not a burden but you didn’t ask for this either.”

Taeil took a while to ponder as they walked down the street Donghyuck had told him about. It wasn’t a very busy street, he hadn’t seen a single person besides themselves in the ten minutes they’d been walking down it. That didn’t seem like very good business for a bakery. 

Eventually, he shrugged. “Friends help friends.”

Kun sighed again. “Friends help friends.” He repeated.

It wasn’t long before Taeil spotted Donghyuck a little further away, before the street he knew they were supposed to turn down. 

“Donghyuck,” He greeted as they approached each other. “You didn’t have to meet us out here—you couldn’t wait at the bakery?”

“I wanted to meet you guys here!” Donghyuck shrugged, eyes practically sparkling when they landed on Kun, hand outstretched. “Hi! You’re Kun?”

“Uh, yes?” Kun shook Donghyuck’s hand. Taeil didn’t remember telling Donghyuck Kun’s name.

“Nice to meet you. Follow me!” Donghyuck turned around and with a skip in his step, led them down the other street.

Taeil and Kun stayed a little behind. Kun tugged on Taeil’s arm and leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Suddenly I understand why you think there’s a solution in this bakery. This kid is… mysterious, to say the least.”

“To say the least.” Taeil muttered back. He wondered when Donghyuck had gone from friendly eager intern to mysterious _‘problem solver’_. Perhaps he’d always been that way. He’d been open and closed from the very beginning.

Donghyuck stopped on the sidewalk and waited for Kun and Taeil to catch up. “Ta-dah!” He exclaimed as he opened the door he was standing beside. Taeil only had a moment to notice the plainly marked ‘bakery’ on the window before he was ushered in, Kun right behind. 

He looked around the inside of the bakery. It was rather… simple. Just like the words on the outside of the building. Maybe minimalism was the thing nowadays. He much rather liked a homey-vibe, but that was his personal preference. 

He turned to look at Donghyuck, who closed the door behind them and quickly turned the open sign that was hanging so that it read closed on the outside. Taeil found it a little concerning when he also watched him lock the door with a click. He tried swallowing his nervousness down. He trusted Donghyuck, didn’t he?

Of course he did. Donghyuck hadn’t ever shown that he was dangerous or anything. Taeil still couldn’t help how the hair on his arms stood up, just a little spooked.

Donghyuck smiled at him and it eased something in Taeil. His smile faltered ever so slightly then was back again, like a flickering light bulb when footsteps were heard from further into the bakery.

Taeil turned. Sicheng stopped in his place when he made eye contact with Kun, then Taeil, then Donghyuck.

“Donghyuck,” His voice was so low Taeil almost had to lean forward to hear him properly even if he wasn’t being spoken to. “You said you had a work thing.”

“This is a work thing!” Taeil wasn’t sure if he imagined the slight waver in Donghyuck’s voice or not. “Is Jaehyun downstairs? I want him to meet my friends!”

Donghyuck pushed passed them and Taeil took a moment to glance at Kun, who looked utterly lost and confused but still aware of the odd atmosphere in the room. Kun glanced back at Taeil, who shrugged. He was just as lost as he was.

“We’re just gonna go downstairs, okay—” Donghyuck was stopped with Sicheng’s hand on his chest. It was so quiet Taeil thought he’d be able to hear a pin drop. He felt Kun hold onto his arm again, not for attention, just for comfort. Taeil could understand. This was… _odd_. 

Sicheng stared into Donghyuck’s eyes and without a word, opened the door Taeil assumed lead downstairs and disappeared.

“Donghyuck, what—” Taeil managed to form words but Donghyuck was spinning towards him, smile big as if nothing had just happened.

“Do you want something to eat while we wait? It’ll be on the house.”

“Uh… sure?” Taeil didn’t think he’d been so confused in his life. He and Kun managed to sit down without tripping over themselves and Donghyuck served them each with what smelled like a pumpkin tart.

Donghyuck patted Taeil on the back. “I’ll be right back. I’m gonna see what’s going on down there.”

Donghyuck disappeared behind the door Sicheng had just gone through, leaving Kun and Taeil to stare at each other, utterly confused.

“This is weird, right?” Kun asked as he picked up the tart. Taeil followed him, taking a bite of his own tart. “Like… this isn’t a normal bakery experience?”

Taeil swallowed. Definitely a pumpkin tart but yet, it didn’t taste homemade, at least not how Johnny made his tarts. “I’m beginning to think these people aren’t normal.” Taeil confessed. He took another bite of the tart and frowned.

“It tastes like a packaged one.” It only took Kun one look at Taeil’s face to know what he was thinking. “I think we sell this exact brand in my store.”

Now, what kind of bakery sold packaged treats? Unless it was a front, of course, which everything seemed to point towards. Taeil put the tart down because he didn’t really trust it anymore. Kun did the same, wiping his hands on a napkin.

They sat in silence for only a few moments before they heard the door open and a man Taeil didn’t recognize stepped out, a dimpled smile on his face.

“Hi,” He approached and both Kun and Taeil stood up. The man offered his hand towards Taeil first. “You must be Taeil.”

Taeil took his hand cautiously. “And you must be Jaehyun. Donghyuck’s brother.”

“Half-brother,” He corrected. Jaehyun’s grip was strong, shaking Taeil’s hand and moving to Kun, who introduced himself.

Taeil observed Jaehyun. He didn’t think Jaehyun looked like he was related to Donghyuck at all. Milky skin, dimples, tall and broad, different bone structures, smiles, expressions, everything. Donghyuck was cute where Jaehyun was handsome, even with his perfectly pink hair atop his head. Then again, they could always be related to each other another way, through marriage. They’d just been so adamant about the ‘half-brother’ part. Maybe one side’s genes were stronger than whichever one they shared. He guessed it didn’t really matter, Taeil trusted Donghyuck even if he didn’t trust Jaehyun yet.

“Did you enjoy the tarts?” Jaehyun nodded to the unfinished tarts on the table, expression neutral. He must be able to tell that they didn’t—else why would they be left unfinished?

“Yes, they were great,” Taeil lied and smiled because he was not unfriendly even if he was skeptical. “Is Hyuck coming back up?”

“He’s downstairs.” Jaehyun replied.

Taeil swore he could feel the goosebumps rise on his nape with the way Jaehyun smiled at him. Suddenly he didn’t think they should be there, he felt like he needed to get both him and Kun out as soon as possible.

“I’m sorry if we disturbed you, but I think we should go.” He looked to Kun who only blinked at him. Whatever was going on at this place, Taeil was not so sure it would help him. He’d only been met with uncertain feelings so far. “I’m not even sure why Donghyuck brought us here, but—”

“Look, I’m gonna be frank with you,” Jaehyun interrupted, his smile falling for the first time and voice deepening. He stared straight at Taeil. “It seems like Donghyuck trusts you enough that he was willing to compromise us, but he told me you had a _problem_ that needs _fixing_.” There was a sparkle in Jaehyun’s eyes that told Taeil he was exactly what they were looking for.

Kun frowned. “What the hell does that mean?” He looked between Taeil and Jaehyun, their eyes locked to each other in mutual understanding.

“He can help Ten.” Taeil watched as Jaehyun’s gaze softened, smiling again—only this time it didn’t make Taeil want to run away.

“I can help Ten.” Jaehyun repeated.

He still did not trust the man, but there he was in front of them, a solution.

 

 

 

Kun jabbed his keys into his apartment door and jiggled the handle, frustrated.

“If you don’t want to do this Kun, we don’t have to.” Taeil tried to calm him down but it wasn’t working. He could hear Kun’s breathing start to speed up.

“Do you see any other option? This is the only thing we found and it’s some guy who says he can fix Ten, _illegally_ , with a shit bakery as a front. _You_ said you didn’t even trust him. But what else do I have, Taeil? _Nothing_.” 

Kun rested his forehead against the door and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I just want this to work out.”

“Me too, Kun.” Taeil took the keys from Kun’s hands and unlocked the door with ease. “I want this to work out too.”

Kun pushed open the door and took a step inside, looking around as if he didn’t recognize it. Taeil himself hadn’t ever been in Kun’s place before but he was certain this was not how it was normally kept. There were books strewn haphazardly onto the floor, dishes broken on the kitchen counter and clothes scattered everywhere.

“I’m sorry for the mess,” Kun swallowed, letting Taeil enter and shutting the door behind him. “I haven’t been here since… Well,”

“I understand,” Taeil smiled. He had sympathized with Kun’s pain but now Taeil could physically feel it, agony seeping into the floorboards, despair dripping from the walls. It broke his heart.

“He’s in the bedroom.” Kun whispered, though his legs did not budge. Taeil moved through the home first, Kun following after. Taeil knew he did not want to see the way Ten had been left after breaking, but if he were to be fixed, they needed to bring him back to Jaehyun.

With Kun’s directions from behind, Taeil found Kun and Ten’s bedroom and slowly pushed the door open. Taeil felt around the wall with his hand and flicked on the light switch.

He flicked it back off immediately when he saw the figure in the bed in the middle of the room. He swallowed the bile that quickly rose up his throat. Taeil tried so hard not to gag, gasping instead. When he looked back at Kun, the other had his eyes squeezed shut. Taeil wished he could do the same.

He had never seen a dead body but he imagined it was not unlike what he had just witnessed.

“You never did go into detail about what the safety protocol did to him, did you?” Taeil croaked. Kun shook his head.

“I didn’t,” he whispered. “But you saw it.”

“Kun… I don’t think you should help with this.”

“How else are we supposed to get him to Jaehyun?” Yet Kun still had his eyes firmly closed.

“Kun…” Taeil said softly. He had an idea on how they would get Ten to the bakery with little suspicion and hopefully it didn’t involve Kun having to look. Taeil just hoped Ten wasn’t too heavy for him. “Ten wouldn’t want you to see him like this.”

“I already have, I’ve kissed the metal under his skin—cried into his damn _insides_ , I just—” Kun’s shoulders sagged, defeated. “I just don’t want this to be the last time I see him.”

Taeil put a hand on Kun’s shoulder. “I know we don’t trust Jaehyun, but I _do_ trust Donghyuck for whatever reason. I just do. We’re going to get Ten fixed, whether it’s Jaehyun or someone else, okay?”

“Okay,” Kun nodded. “What are we going to do? We can’t carry him like that to the bakery, someone will see and take him away before we even get close.”

Taeil gently pushed Kun out of the bedroom. “I have an idea. I’ll call you back in when I’m ready. You’ll be able to open your eyes, alright?” Before Kun could say anything, Taeil closed the bedroom door on him.

Taking a deep breath, Taeil turned back on the light.

At least Ten didn’t smell. If he smelled as bad as he looked, Taeil doubted any of this would be possible. 

He approached the bed and took a moment to study what was left of his face. Taeil wasn’t sure what kind of ‘safety protocol’ caused the outward human appearance to burn itself off—but perhaps it was to dissuade people who liked to tinker. It was jarring, looking at an assembly of metal and wires with only remnants of patches of skin that used to make Ten look like Ten. Some were burnt at the edges, suggesting that he had caught fire—and Kun had put it out. His facial structure was still there though, formed by metal. Maybe that was what made it worse to look at.

Taeil could only put together what he thought might have happened from looking at the scene in front of him. Ten was on the bed, tucked under the sheets as if he were sleeping. Maybe Kun had done that in his saddened stupor. The thought of it made Taeil sigh.

He peeled the sheets off of Ten’s body and had to take a moment to just stand there with his eyes closed.

_‘It’s okay,’_ He told himself. _‘He won’t be like this for long. He can’t get fixed if you don’t do this._ ’

Taeil had never seen an android without it’s human appearance—he was sure it would be fine if he walked into a factory or something and saw them being made. Seeing someone you knew, laughed with, ate with, reduced to essentially their bare bones with patches of them still there to remind you that it was them—that was a different story.

“Oh, I’m so sorry Ten,” Taeil whispered, swallowing his tears. He didn’t want to get emotional but perhaps it was a buildup of the stress, plus the fact that he hadn’t really been sleeping properly ever since this whole thing happened.

Taeil left the bedside and went into Kun and Ten’s closet. He pulled out the baggiest clothes he could find and then brought them over to Ten. He stripped off the remaining pieces of clothes Ten still had on and threw them to the ground. He’d figure out where to throw them out later. Taeil then very carefully pulled on the sweatpants over Ten’s legs and rolled on long socks over his feet, covering any and all metal on his bottom half.

It was odd, dressing him like a doll. Ten was still heavy in weight but it was so easy to move him, with no resistance from his metal structure. When Taeil got his pinky finger stuck in the wires of Ten’s stomach when attempting to put a shirt on his body—he had to take a moment to just breathe.

It wasn’t that it hurt or anything, it was just—when could you ever say you got your finger caught in your friends insides? What were technically his organs… Taeil shuddered, wiped away the single tear that had escaped and continued doing what he had to do.

He tucked the shirt into the sweatpants so that in case anything rode up, there was a low chance of anything showing. Luckily Ten still had a patch of skin on his lower back still attached, but Taeil wasn’t going to take any chances.

He put a sweater over top, one with a giant hood that he pulled over Ten’s head. Tufts of hair still remained over his forehead but not enough to cover his face. Taeil was quick to find a baseball cap to put under the hood.

“Kun?” Taeil called through the door. “Do you have any masks for dust storms?”

“Yeah, one second.” Kun replied, although his voice sounded shaky. Taeil waited only for a moment before the door creaked open slightly, and a box was slipped into Taeil’s hands.

Taeil thanked him and shut the door again. He didn’t want Kun to see Ten unless it was absolutely necessary. Taeil placed the mask on Ten’s face—it didn’t cover the metal up completely but it was enough. Taeil would piggyback Ten all the way to the bakery with Ten’s face in his shoulder—no one would see anything. The only thing they’d suspect was that a friend had too much to drink, even though it was still daytime, it wouldn’t be something too surprising on a weekend afternoon.

Now, to get Ten on his back, he couldn’t do that on his own unless he wanted an absolute disaster. He had to call Kun into the room.

When Taeil opened the door, Kun was still standing there, eyes on the floor. He looked up in alarm, as if he'd already forgotten Taeil had been on the other side.

“This is where I need your help,” Taeil said softly. “I need you to help get Ten on my back.”

Kun took a tentative look inside, spying the fully clothed and slightly normal-looking Ten on the bed. Kun shook his head and Taeil sighed.

“Kun—”

“No,” Kun fully stepped inside the room, standing a little taller than he had in days. “I’m gonna carry him.”

“You sure?”

Kun wavered only slightly before nodding. ”Positive.”

Taeil admired his strength. Kun took a long look at the body before approaching it and sitting on the side of the bed. Taeil maneuvered Ten’s limbs to wrap around Kun’s torso, legs around his stomach, arms around his neck. Kun hooked his arms under Ten’s knees and held onto him tightly.

Kun attempted to stand up but Ten’s body was too limp and at such a straight angle, Taeil had to hold him from falling backwards back onto the bed.

The second attempt was more successful. Taeil held onto Ten’s hands to pull him forward while Kun got up, then Kun hunched over to keep Ten on his back. Taeil shifted Ten’s head to curl into Kun’s neck, completely unseen by anyone in front of them.

Kun took a deep breath. “Let’s go.” He looked forward, determined as he carried Ten out of their apartment. Taeil followed behind, making sure Ten did not fall over backwards. Before they left, he stuffed extra masks into his pockets, put an extra baseball cap that belonged to Kun on his own head and hurried after them.

The most difficult part was the subway ride. Kun could not sit down or else they risked not being able to get back up. At least the ride was mostly smooth and there weren’t too many people that insisted Kun take their seat. Taeil kept a steady hand on Ten’s back almost at all times. The longest amount of time he had it off was when he heard sniffling coming from in front of him as he followed Kun down the streets.

Wordlessly, Taeil took one of the masks out of his pocket and made Kun slow down to a stop. He quickly wiped Kun’s cheeks with his thumbs, hooking the mask over his ears to cover his face, then removing the baseball cap he’d borrowed that he was wearing and fitting it over Kun’s head.

He took his place again, slightly behind Kun, hand on Ten’s back and Kun continued walking, sniffling a little harder.

It was Sicheng who was waiting for them when they arrived at the bakery, holding the door open for them to shuffle through. He locked the door behind them and when heading to the door that led downstairs, Taeil hardly even noticed Donghyuck sitting at one of the tables until he sprung up to help. 

Sicheng went down first, then Donghyuck, who walked backwards down the stairs, making sure Kun didn’t lose his balance. Taeil followed behind last, making sure he stayed balanced from behind.

They followed Sicheng down a dimly lit hallway and through a heavy metal door. Taeil couldn’t look around much but he was certain this was not how most basements under bakeries or stores looked. 

The room they entered was bright, completely opposite from the hallway. It hurt Taeil’s eyes just a little.

“Over here, on the table.” Jaehyun’s voice rang out. Taeil helped Kun put Ten on the table along with Donghyuck, who’s face morphed into quiet terror when he caught a glimpse of the metal and burned skin behind Ten’s mask. Ten's body fell into the mold in the table and metal shackles rose from it to lock him in place.

“Stand back.” Jaehyun ordered. Taeil had to pull Kun by his shirt to get him to back away from Ten.

The table began to move, rotating into an upright position, further solidifying that this was no ordinary basement. Not that Taeil expected it to be. He lived in an apartment completely controlled by an AI yet this seemed completely out of his sense of _‘normal’_. Maybe it was because it was Ten, Ten who Taeil knew, who was being put on display in front of him like he was Frankenstein’s monster or something.

Jaehyun approached Ten and Taeil couldn’t help let his emotions escape. It was all just getting a little bit too much, he said he didn’t trust Jaehyun, didn’t he? And here he was, letting him lock Ten to a table like some experiment.

“What’s in this for you?” The roughness in his voice surprised everyone except Sicheng, who seemed unphased.

Jaehyun turned to Taeil, eyebrow raised. He’d changed from the casual wear from earlier that day—he clothes he wore now were visibly dirty, like he’d used them often when doing this kind of work. He had gloves on his hands, a tool belt around his waist and goggles nested in his pink hair. 

He took a long look at Taeil before his face softened into a smile. “You don’t trust me, do you?”

Taeil huffed. Wow, he didn’t know he was having a bad day until that very moment. He crossed his arms over his chest. “You haven’t exactly given me a reason to. People don’t just do favours like this for free, even when their little brothers beg them to.” As much as Taeil liked to look at the world as a pretty decent place, that just wasn’t how things worked.

Jaehyun seemed thoughtful for a moment. “Think of it like a long-term investment. I have a feeling our relationship won’t stop with just this. You have other AI friends, don’t you?” 

He said it like he already knew. Taeil cocked his head to the side, intrigued. “If I did, I see where you would benefit me, but I’m not sure how I would benefit you.”

“We don’t often see the value in ourselves. Don’t think so lowly of yourself, Taeil.”

“That doesn’t make me trust you any more—it makes me trust you less.”

Jaehyun laughed a hearty laugh. Maybe that meant it was genuine. “Look, I’m not a fortune teller or a psychic, I can’t tell you what’s going to happen tomorrow, in a month, or even later this evening. I can’t force you to trust me, but I’m going to have to ask you to give me a chance if I’m going to give you back your friend.”

“I trust you,” Kun interrupted, removing his mask. “Please, you’re my only shot.” Maybe his mind had changed on the way over, maybe desperation had taken hold of him completely while seeing Ten on display in front of him. What they were doing was beyond illegal, Taeil doubted they’d find anyone who wouldn’t turn them over to the authorities for having an expired android and trying to revive it. “I’ll pay you anything—I can take out a loan, I’ll give you half of my paycheck for the rest of my life, please.”

Jaehyun shook his head. “No, I don’t want that. Fixing him will be enough for me.”

“And that’s why I don’t trust this.” Taeil sighed. Kun looked at him, anguish in his eyes, as if he were ruining this whole thing. Maybe he was—maybe Taeil was finally just done with everything, maybe he wasn’t thinking clearly.

“As you can see here,” Jaehyun gestured around the room. It was filled with storage boxes, some in neat order on shelves, some stacked haphazardly with wires and scraps of metal spilling out of them. “What I do is I illegally build and modify androids underneath a mediocre bakery. If I don’t help you then what’s stopping you from turning me in?”

It finally clicked in Taeil’s head when said bluntly. If both parties are satisfied then there’s little chance of the other running to the authorities to oust one of the other first. 

“We both keep each other a secret.” He muttered. Maybe Taeil had just been too into his emotions. It had been a long few days.

Jaehyun smiled. “I don’t blame you for not trusting me, you don’t know what I’m gonna do to Ten, you don’t know if I can really help him. I’ve come out of nowhere as your knight in shining armour and it seems too good to be true, because there’s always a catch, isn’t there?”

Taeil refrained from saying anything. Jaehyun read him too well. He just wanted to see Johnny smile again.

Ten—he wanted to see Ten smile again.

“I can’t tell you that there isn’t a catch, that this will go through without any sort of hiccup or karma. I can’t stop that, I’m not God. What I _can_ do is show you what I do and hope that you can put a little bit of faith in me. I don’t think you’re the type to ask for help often, are you?”

Maybe that was why this was so difficult. It wasn’t even Taeil who needed the help and yet he was treating it like the problem was his alone. It was Kun who didn’t have Ten anymore—Taeil still had Johnny, even though it didn’t feel like it at the moment. His mind had replaced the two, imagining it was Johnny on that table instead of Ten.

His feelings still remained. He wanted this to work. He wanted Ten to be alive again, he wanted to trust Jaehyun—it just wasn’t his call to make.

Taeil chuckled to himself, feeling foolish. “I’m sorry, I’m being selfish, acting like this is only my problem.” He turned to Kun. “I’m sorry. Perhaps everything’s been affecting me more than I thought.”

Kun held onto Taeil’s arm, giving it a squeeze, understanding that he was talking about Johnny. “It’s okay. Thank you for being so concerned, Taeil. You’re a good friend, you know. I couldn’t have gone to anyone else about this.”

“I’m sorry,” Taeil repeated, because he was. He decided then that he’d talk to Johnny when he got home after all this. He would have to tell him that they had found a solution for Ten, anyway.

Kun turned to Jaehyun. “Please, continue. Show us what you do.”

Jaehyun clasped his hands together calmly, looking pleased. “Well, it’s going to take a while—I’ll have to completely rewire the insides, replace parts, make sure it’s all working again cohesively and that he doesn’t break like that again—don’t tell Neo Tech I’ve figured out their secret—” His spoke faster the more excited he got. Clearly, Jaehyun had a love for this kind of thing. Taeil wondered why the hell he decided to open a bakery as cover for it.

“Do you have any pictures of him? I’ll need as many as you can give me to get his face right.” Sicheng spoke for the first time since they arrived, interrupting Jaehyun. Taeil belatedly remembered they were together.

“Yes, I have—a lot,” Kun nodded, fishing his phone out of his pocket. With his permission, Sicheng took his phone and disappeared through another door, presumably to transfer the photos onto a computer.

Oh. That was what Donghyuck meant when he said Sicheng was more artistically inclined—he was going to repair Ten’s appearance.

“I’m afraid it doesn’t get any more exciting than this—with all the damage to his outer layer and the complete rewiring I have to do inside since he’s one of the older models—It’s going to take a while. You’re free to stay as long as you want.” Jaehyun nodded to Kun. “Overnight too—don’t think I’m gonna make you go home or anything.”

Kun breathed into a relieved smile. “Thank you. I’ve been taking up Taeil’s bed for too long.” His face faltered as he continued. “Can I ask—do you think—is his mind—is he still… there? It wasn’t destroyed?”

Jaehyun approached Kun, putting a hand on his shoulder. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in doing this—it’s that Neo Tech love protecting the minds of their AIs. He’s still in there—just waiting for you.”

Kun sighed in relief, staring at Ten longingly. He was still covered by the clothes Taeil had put on, so he was still easy to look at. Taeil himself felt some of the weight come off his shoulders, knowing that Ten would still be Ten after all of it, though a thought did occur to him.

“Why do they install a safety protocol if the AI isn’t being destroyed completely? I thought they didn’t want it repaired?”

Jaehyun shrugged. “They don’t want it repaired by anyone else, but they have the most advanced AI in the world—I wouldn’t want to destroy an accomplishment like that so easily either. Most people are going to see a destroyed android and assume it’s gone anyway. That would probably stop them.”

Taeil got the feeling that Jaehyun and Sicheng weren’t _‘most people’_. He wanted to stay longer—he had so many questions—but there was someone he still needed to talk to (and catch before he went on one of his nighttime walks). Besides, the more questions he asked right now the more time it would take for Jaehyun to start working on Ten.

“I’ll walk you up!” Donghyuck had been rather quiet the entire time, gazing at Ten while the others spoke. He only perked up when Taeil mentioned that he should get going.

Jaehyun shook his hand, telling him he was free to stop by at any time. While Taeil still did not trust the man, he’d warmed up to him just a little. He mainly promised to stop by to see Kun and make sure he was okay. He had a feeling the other wouldn’t leave very often and Taeil understood that—he didn’t think he’d leave either if it were Johnny on that table.

Taeil and Donghyuck returned back to the bakery but Taeil stopped before opening the door that led back outside.

He turned to Donghyuck. “So you heard all of my private conversation then, hm?”

Donghyuck flushed but tried to play it off like no big deal. “I heard the beginning and I just—I knew I could help!” He pouted for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

Taeil ran an affectionate hand through the intern’s hair. “Thank you for helping.”

Donghyuck beamed at him and Taeil felt a little lighter.

“Can you just… Can you tell me one thing?” Taeil still had so many questions, all floating around in his head—this group of people was so dizzying to him. He imagined having Sicheng and Donghyuck working for Neo Tech was an advantage, but how? Taeil wanted to ask but he was so, so tired. He just needed to hear one thing before he left. “Tell me you trust your brother.”

Donghyuck’s gaze softened. “I do. I trust him with my life—and Ten’s.”

Taeil thanked him and headed home.

 

 

 

  
Taeil wasn’t sure what he was expecting when he got back to the apartment, but it was still mildly disappointing when he found it to be empty. With a sigh, he started to make dinner for himself.

“Hey Taeyong,” he called suddenly. “Has Johnny talked to you about… anything, lately?” He knew they talked a lot, especially when Taeil was at work. He must have said something to the Home.

“Yes,” Taeyong answered simply, though there was a hint of hesitation as if he were going to say more but then decided not to.

“So something _is_ wrong,” Taeil stopped his meal prepping to concentrate on the conversation. It was obvious something was wrong but it was still satisfying to hear it straight out. Why couldn’t Johnny talk to him?

Taeyong sighed. The blue circle emanating from the wall faded in and out slowly, contemplating. “I just don’t think it’s what you think it is.”

“Please,” The desperation from earlier that day was hitting Taeil hard again. “Please tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’m sorry, Taeil, it isn’t for me to tell you.”

Taeil sighed and continued making his dinner. It took a moment for him to gather his thoughts all back up again and when he did—he smiled. “It’s okay. I think I need to sleep before I do something stupid. Ah, I’ve been everywhere today.”

“I’m sorry I can’t tell you.”

“Don’t be. You’re sticking to what you value, Taeyong. It’s what I like about you. Thank you.” It would be better to hear it all from Johnny anyway. He appreciated what Taeyong was doing.

It felt like ages since it had just been the two of them. Taeil cooking dinner for himself while Taeyong watched, occasionally reminding him to stir the noodles in the boiling water. The rest of the quiet was intimidating—maybe Taeyong saw that Taeil was a bit unsettled by it, their apartment had been lively and full for months now. Whatever the reason for it, Taeyong began to hum the tune of a song Taeil used to sing quite frequently when it was just them.

Taeil smiled to himself and sang with him. 

The news channel wasn’t all that interesting when he sat down to eat. No updates to any stories that he was interested in—just the announcement that Neo Tech had announced the date for the new android line to the public—with no information to go with it. Taeil guessed he was apart of some exclusive group now, one that knew about the new line before the others. He cleaned up his dishes and headed up to bed. 

It had been far too long since being in his own bed, since curling in his own sheets. He didn't mind letting Kun sleep in it but of course he missed it. He changed into his pajamas and was already half asleep when he heard Taeyong calling out to him.

“Taeil? Taeil!” He whispered.

“Hmm?” Taeil pressed his palms into his eyes as he sat up in bed, groggy.

“Johnny’s home.”

Taeil got up, already a lot more awake than he was a second ago. He padded downstairs and found Johnny sitting at the dining table, staring straight ahead at nothing. If he noticed Taeil approaching, then he didn’t give an indication of it.

“Hey,” Taeil stayed a healthy distance away. He didn’t want to scare Johnny off. “Can I talk to you?”

Instead of remaining stoic like Taeil expected him to, Johnny turned to him and his face fell, somber, but he said nothing.

“What’s happening?” Taeil took a step closer. At least Johnny was looking at him, even if it was absolutely heartbreaking. “May I know what’s going on?” When Johnny still did not answer, Taeil continued, voice getting softer with every word. “Is it Ten? We found someone to fix him, he’s gonna be okay. Kun’s with them now. Ten’s gonna be okay.”

“It’s…” Hearing Johnny’s voice sent a thrill down Taeil’s spine. It had been a while since they’d talked—he was so ready to listen. 

“It’s not Ten—well, some of it is, but not all of it.” Johnny quieted, looking away. Taeil watched him, saying nothing. He had to let Johnny say it himself. “I’m glad Ten’s going to be okay though… I’m really glad.” Johnny added softly. It wasn’t enough to bring a smile to his face though.

“Will you tell me what happened?”

Johnny bit his lower lip and said nothing.

That was enough for Taeil, this conversation itself was enough. He was happy just to talk to Johnny for now, for him not to leave.

“Hey, it’s okay if you can’t right now. Some other time? It’s getting late.” Taeil made sure Johnny was looking into his eyes before he continued. “Do you want to come to bed with me? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I want to—I just,” The admission made Taeil’s heart skip a beat. “I don’t want to… _do_ anything.”

Taeil frowned, appalled at the notion that Johnny _thought_ —but he quickly smoothed his face over. It wasn’t about him in this moment. “Johnny, if one of us doesn’t want it—it doesn’t happen, alright? Ever. Thank you for telling me.”

Johnny stared at him with eyes that just seemed so _sad_. Taeil took his chance to approach because he couldn’t just let Johnny look at him like Taeil was about to disappear at any moment. He carefully reached his hand out and ghosted it over Johnny’s cheek, letting him lean into it at his own discretion.

Johnny closed his eyes when he pressed into Taeil's palm and Taeil felt his chest tighten. He moved slowly, pressing their foreheads together to let Johnny know that whatever it was, whatever was bothering him—Taeil was here for him and he wasn't going anywhere else. 

When Taeil pulled away, Johnny’s hands reached up to cup Taeil’s face. It was slightly odd, looking down at Johnny as Taeil was standing and the other was still sitting—but he relished in the feeling of the touch anyway. 

Johnny’s thumbs softly brushed under Taeil’s eyes. “You’ve been having trouble sleeping. I’m sorry.”

Taeil smiled. Despite not knowing what was wrong or not solving whatever the problem was—he was still happy. “Don’t blame yourself, we’ve both had a lot on our minds—except I need to shut down and you don’t.” 

Johnny cracked the tiniest smile at Taeil’s joke. Taeil could have started to dance he was so happy to see Johnny smile again. Instead, he bent back down and pressed his lips gently to Johnny’s forehead. “Let’s go to bed.”

“Okay,” Johnny whispered. He slowly dropped his hands from Taeil’s face and gingerly reached out, intertwining one of his hands with Taeil’s.

Taeil held Johnny’s hand firmly, assuring him again that he wasn’t going anywhere—and pulled him upstairs.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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